Opiyo Wandayi, who is minority Leader of the ODM party and Mp says Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party is deeply concerned at the worsening economic situation in the country that has seen the government unable to meet one of its most basic of obligations, which is paying its workers.
He says the Azimio coalition fear that this country is collapsing while we sit pretty hoping for miracles.
Wandayi detailed that Kenyans will recall that one of the first acts of the Kenya Kwanza regime upon assuming power was to remove subsidies to basic goods with claims that subsidizing consumption was a waste of money.
Kenya Kwanza then proceeded to appoint people with questionable credentials and serious criminal records and placed them at our revenue and financial systems at the Kenya Revenue Authority, the National Treasury and even the Central Bank of Kenya.
Kenya Kwanza immediately announced that from the scrapped fuel subsidy alone the Treasury would will save Sh9.49 billion.
Other savings would come in from the removal of subsidies on unga and school fees. The regime then embarked on massive tax increases.
In came 20 per cent tax on M-PESA, internet transactions went up to 16 per cent, 15 percent capital gains tax on the transfer of property, VAT on e-books and videoconferencing, the list is endless.
The net effect of all these measures was supposedly to increase revenue collection to between Sh4 trillion and Sh5 trillion per year and enable the government finance its operations.
Today, Wandayi noted, it is about six months into this regime, Kenya cannot pay salaries, leave alone finance its other operations. This is the sad state of affairs that the administration is hiding from Kenyans.
For the first time since independence in 1963, the government of Kenya is unable to pay salaries to civil servants and members of parliament. Nearly all civil servants don’t know when or if they will ever be paid.
The situation has been degenerating progressively since December last year. This month, things have come to ahead. For the first time in our history, even MPs have not been paid as we head towards mid-month.
According to Wandayi, only members of the security services-police and military-have been paid as we speak and the reason must be obvious to all.
However, he warned that it won’t be long before members of the disciplined forces also begin missing salaries if we continue this way.
“Where the proceeds from taxes and savings from scrapped subsidies are going, we can’t tell.” Said Wandayi in a press statement.
The easy conclusion is that the criminals at KRA are collecting and pocketing taxes as the incompetents at the National Treasury also skim off the revenue while failing to come up with sound policies for cash flow.
The result of this theft and incompetence at critical institutions that civil servants and MPs have gone to Easter without salaries. Charge of revenue generation and collection is that affects a long chain of people who depend on salaries of civil servants. “It is a sad time indeed for Kenya.”
Kenya headed wrong direction:
Wandayi noted that never ever imagined this could happen in Kenya. This is happening at a time counties have also not received revenue from the National Treasury for at least four months now.
Both national and county governments are struggling to pay salaries and service delivery is getting compromised with every passing month.
Soon, even parastatals will not be able to operate. The administration owes state agencies Sh204 billion while the counties are demanding Sh92.5 billion which is the equitable share for the months of January, February, and March.
This is happening at a time the regime is busy setting up offices and working on salaries and other benefits for 50 CASS and their staff in addition to creating offices for spouses, first sons and first daughters.
How can it be that we scrapped subsidies, increased taxes, continued to borrow, only for our financial situation get worse? Where is the money going? It is significant that our cash flow problems have coincided with the collapse of our national currency with no explanation being given.
The Kenya shilling has not only weakened against the US dollar. The Kenyan currency fell significantly against the Tanzanian shilling- by nearly 10% since last September.
This suggests that domestic factors are causing part of the decline of the Kenyan shilling. This state of affairs calls for bold leadership. We are calling on parliament to take leadership and conduct inquiry on the financial and economic crisis building up in the country before we collapse like other African countries that have gone that route.
We need to take a close look at the operations of individuals and systems at the National Treasury, the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenya Revenue Authority and compel testimony and the production of documents with a view to establishing what has gone wrong.
We need to take a close and thorough look at the goings-on at our revenue collection points and revenue sources like the Kenya Airports Authority, the courts, customs, National Social Security Fund (NSSF), aids and grants and revenue administration in addition to probing government spending.
It is not enough to allow the regime hide behind explanations like COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and the general economic meltdown around the globe.
We believe a lot of our cash flow problems have got to do with the corruption, tribalism, nepotism, incompetence and plain theft at critical revenue collection points, starting with the KRA, in addition to wrong spending priorities.
