Kalonzo Issues Ultimatum and Warns of Mass Protests
Kalonzo Issues Ultimatum and Warns of Mass Protests
Kalonzo Issues Ultimatum and Warns of Mass Protests
Principal Kalonzo Musyoka of Azimio la Umoja declared that if Parliament approves the National Treasury’s planned Finance Bill 2024, the coalition would go on the streets.
Speaking on Sunday during a church service at the Vision Centre in Embakasi East, co-principal Martha Karua accompanied Musyoka, who bemoaned the high proposed taxes, particularly for low-income people.
Additionally, he raised concerns about the tax’s imposition on necessities like food, claiming it was unduly harsh.
In light of this, he implored Parliament to change the bill; if this fails, the opposition will organize nationwide rallies alongside ordinary Kenyans.
“Besides boda boda’s tax going up, even bread tax has gone up. Now imagine, if you deny a Kenyan child bread, what are you doing?” he stated.
“They are even saying that civil servants will be signing a contract. We are not mad people, we just love our country and want people to live in peace.”
Attendee Karua echoed Kalonzo’s assertion that the new tax package was too onerous for most Kenyan households, many of which are already struggling with a high cost of living.
“The tax must be paid because the government needs development but you cannot charge the tax to the point of making food inaccessible.”
“You cannot tax so much to cause children from poor households to sleep hungry and fail to go to school,” she said.
The State proposed a number of new taxes in the recently announced law, including withholding tax, digital content tax, minimum top-up tax, and motor vehicle tax.
Car owners will be required to pay a minimum of Ksh5,000 and a maximum of Ksh100,000 for the motor vehicle tax, depending on the value of their vehicle. Multinational corporations with a gross (combined) revenue of Ksh106 billion would be impacted by the minimum top-up tax.
In addition, the government intends to impose contracts on all government workers and has increased taxes that impact the boda boda industry.
