By BRYAN TUMWA
KAKAMEGA COUNTY: A section of businessmen in Kakamega County have moved to court to challenge the constitutionality of the county’s Finance Act.
The petitioners, Kakamega Business and Residents Association and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce filed a case at the High Court in Kakamega to declare the law unconstitutional.
The association’s Chairman Rajinder Sembi said the taxes introduced by the law were dimmed utterly unreasonable by the business community who feel that the county government is not adequately handling their grievances.
“We have exhausted all avenues of engaging with the county government in order to have our pleas heard. First, we were only given a one-day notice for the public participation meeting through the newspaper advertisement when the law was still at the assembly. We protested about that at the governor’s office since most businesspeople had prior engagements and couldn’t just shut down their businesses but our cries were ignored,” said Mr Sembi.
He added that the businessmen under the two umbrella bodies had requested for a copy of the Bill for scrutiny before it was signed but it was never availed until the Bill was assented into law.
“Businesses are already feeling the burden caused as a result of the VAT Act, which imposes a 16 per cent tax on essential goods and services that had been zero-rated. What is the point of making the cost of business too high in the town when the objective should be to grow the county by opening avenues for new businesses?” posed Sembi.
Karu Ombaye, the lawyer representing the business community, said the case was meant to challenge the high taxes that were introduced.
FUTURE TAX LAWS
“The respondent in our case, being the county government of Kakamega introduced the Finance Act, which the court has to determine its constitutionality. Today, we are only filing after which the High Court will give directions on the case,” said Mr Ombaye.
The latest development comes after Governor Wycliffe Oparanya last week met with some representatives of the business community to iron out the contentious issues contained in the Act.
During the meeting at the county headquarters, he requested them to submit a memorandum of items they felt needed to be amended.
He said the Finance Act was only a basis for coming up with future tax laws and to give the county the legal mandate to collect taxes.
