By Benard Mulwa.
The Amnesty International has today joined efforts by the Anglican Church calling on the law makers to remove and amend sections of the Finance Bill 2024 that have a direct impact on the livelihoods of Kenyans, this comes even as Parliament is debating the Finance Bill 2024.
The Anglican Church leadership today led by Rev. Ole Sapit converged at All African Conference Churches in Nairobi at a symposium to share expertise and experience in the area of social transformation among the communities, bringing together all ten regions of the Anglican Development Services.
Speaking to journalists, Rev. Ole Sapit said Anglican Development Services is a programme which is geared towards meeting the needs of the poor and those who are in need in the area of health, education, food security, advocacy and Climate Change adaptation. "As Anglican Church of Kenya we have looked at Social transformation as the centre of mission, our expertise are in value addition in food chain, Climate change adaptation, economic empowerment of the communities through table banking and Co-operative schemes,"
His grace Rev. Ole Sapit said the International Monetary Fund IMF has in the recent past adviced on the government to do structural adjustments, stop employing new staff because this will demish the taxable population of Kenyans hence the government will not have people with a regular salary to be taxed and if business are under attack with the kind of proposals that are being made then the cost of doing business in the country is going to be very expensive leading to closure of many companies and more jobs will be lost.
The Rev. Also added that focuss on cutting on wastage and non-,essentials ,areas that the government need to stop like corruption and unnecessary trips abroad a proposal cuts in essentials like health, education and food security does not give hope to Kenyans. "If the law makers will pass punitive tax that will harm the electrolet, then the electrolet will be waiting for them," he said things which are going to hurt poor household, like sanitary towels, edible oils, zero rating on bread- Taxation on motor vehicles, putting emphasis that those cars are already paid for duty as a tax when being bought and when fueling each car there is a 16 percent VAT, every spare part there is a 16 percent and that Kenyans don't understand the rational of bringing in another tax. "We want to urge the law makers to read every section of those Bill, we don't expect member of Parliament coming to tell us in the village when are confronted by their electrolets that they have not read the Bill, as we have had in the Finanxe Bill 2023, some members say they passed a Bill that they did not read."
