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It is a good proposal by the Kenya Revenue Authority
to widen its tax collection by going door to door. However, looking at the
country's population of 43 plus million Kenyans, about half of the populations,
meaning 21.5 million Kenyans are poverty stricken. How then do you collect tax from a poverty
people, who hardly earn a dollar a day? Where putting food on the table is
God's miracle, where calorie intake is below 80%, simply put, where the
population aforementioned do not get enough calories to prevent stunted growth
and serious health issues. For example, how will revenue officials collect
tax in Kaloleni, Kilifi County, and Msambweni in Kwale, Lokichogio in Turkana
and in Ukambani areas, with its annual droughts? How will KRA tax people who
can hardly feed themselves, dependent on relief aid? Why state's Sh300 billion tax dream may never happen KRA turns to AI to catch tax cheats Relief for Ruto as court unlocks Finance Act 2023 Confusion rocks tax payment after ruling on Finance Act 2023 Of course it’s the primary duty of any
government in the whole world to protect the life and property of its citizens,
maintain law and order and settle disputes between citizens in a fair and just
manner, defend the country from foreign invasion, protect her border with
neighbouring countries. Ensure the acquisition of education, both universal and
subsidised at primary, secondary and university levels build hospitals and
equip them as well as provide drugs. All these are public duties that need money to
fulfill them not to mention our security apparatus, Air force, Army, Navy,
police and prisons. Further, teachers need good salaries, research by
professionals like engineers in different fields need funding, same applies to
doctors, administration of courts, and legislating laws by parliament need
money. How does government get revenue to fund all these functions? To answer this question; It’s inevitable for
individual citizens to meet all the expenses for the functions above by paying
tax. This is because the money we give or pay as tax
on basic commodities like paraffin, flour, sugar and others upon buying comes
back in form of these public benefits to ourselves. But again, this should not mean that, the fact
that KRA have failed to hit their annual target of revenue collection of 1.2
trillion and have a deficit of about 600 billion should target Mama Mboga who
owns a green vegetables grocery and wakes up in the wee hours of the morning to
go and buy her commodities for sell, to be taxed at her doorstep. Or even a peasant farmer who experienced erratic
rainfall is subjected to paying tax for a half a sack of poor harvest, a
prostitute in a brothel subjected to paying tax, a family who the previous
night slept on empty stomach. Surely, I don’t think KRA would be seeking to
have the burden of taxation distributed in a fair manner to reflect these
different classes in society’s economic status.
Unless, KRA comes up with a different approach
apart from door to door revenue collection it proposes, poverty stricken
Kenyans who rarely afford a three course meal a day would grumble at being
given a raw deal by the government on how to pay their share of taxes. This
could spark a revolution.READ MORE
How door to door taxation will affect the poor
By FRANCIS OKELO
| Oct. 8, 2016
