Members of Parliament during a special sitting. Photo/FILE
By DAVE OPIYO dopiyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, August 14 2011 at 13:30
Posted Sunday, August 14 2011 at 13:30
In Summary
Those who have paid (in public):
- Peter Kenneth (Gatanga, PNU)
- Johnstone Muthama (Kangundo, ODM-K)
- Raila Odinga (Lang’ata, ODM)
- Mwai Kibaki (Othaya, PNU)
- Kalonzo Musyoka (Mwingi North, ODM-K)
- Ferdinand Waititu (Embakasi, PNU)
- Margaret Wanjiru (Starehe, ODM)
- Mutava Musyimi (Gachoka, PNU)
- Gidion “Sonko” Mbuvi (Makadara, Narc-Kenya)
- Wavinya Ndeti (Kathiani, CCU) paid in part
The battle to have MPs pay tax on their hefty perks is now set to move to the courts.
Lobby groups are finalising plans to challenge MPs refusal to pay tax in the corridors of justice and have promised 'the mother of all battles’ if the legislators do not rush to the Kenya Revenue Authority offices to pay up. (Read: Secret deal struck to settle MPs’ tax)
At a news conference in Nairobi on Sunday, the National Civil Society Congress President Mr Maurice Odhiambo said; “We are now preparing to petition the court on this issue.”
He added; “MPs who refuse to pay tax are not just traitors, they are also criminals. If the President, Prime Minister, Vice President and a section of MPs who have paid taxes are traitors, then we are better with them than those who have refused.”
“We wish to remind Kenyans that if we let MPs get away with not paying taxes, we shall have strengthened the anti-reformist politicians and shall have lost the transformation of the Kenyan state.”
He said all Kenyans must share the burden of taxation and those refusing to do so face criminal prosecutions.
Similar remarks were also made by Rev Timothy Njoya, who claimed that by arm-twisting the Treasury into allocating Sh1 billion to pay their taxes, MPs were simply generating cash for their 2012 campaign.
The secretly hammered sweetheart deal confirmed by senior Finance ministry officials familiar with the details could also see MPs’ salaries soar above Sh1.1 million and guarantee them Sh12,000 more on their take home pay.
The agreement is in part fulfillment of a longstanding demand by MPs for the government to implement recommendations of the Akiwumi Tribunal on Parliamentary terms.
“The MPs are simply fundraising cash for their 2012 campaigns…it’s a high time Kenyans get rid of this government…I am tired of having a criminal government in office,” he said.
“I’d rather spend eternity in hell with the ordinary Kenyan who respects the rule of law and pays tax than ten minutes in heaven by these traitors who don’t respect the rule of law,” he added.
The lobby groups also launched a petition to rationalise the salaries and remuneration of state officers to stop wastage of public resources.
Mr Odhiambo said a huge percentage of the country’s revenue was being utilised in servicing recurrent expenditures whereas the development budget was being sourced from donors and loans and grants.
“This has the effect of increasing the country’s debt budget. This would not happen if the wastage of resources by government was curbed and if the budgetary allocation were balanced to provide more funding for development,” he added.
Mr Odhiambo said it was unfair that a certain cadre of civil servants, especially the ones sourced from private sector, seem to enjoy disproportionate levels of remuneration to the detriment of others.
“With high salaries and disproportionate expenditures on public service salaries, the government is left with little to satisfy the demands of citizens. This weakness has forced Kenyans to seek self help alternatives” he said.
It is for this reason that the lobby groups are now pushing for the immediate establishment of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to take over the responsibility of setting the perks of public officers.
“The criteria to set up these commission must take into account critical fundamental of the country’s economy such as the Gross Domestic Product, purchasing power amongst others,” he said.
They are also pushing for the immediate disclosure of the salaries of all public officers, especially those at serving at the highest levels.
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