In the past, the wise warned leaders not push the people to breaking point for if they did, they would have serious problems in their hands. The Hebrew Kingdom of Judah, for instance, broke up after Solomon's death around 931 BCE because Solomon's son, Rehoboam, the new king, increased taxation and oppression of his subjects. Ancient China's Confucius, around 500 BCE also advised rulers to be fair and just or risk uprisings. Since not all rulers internalise such advice or heed warnings, countries suffer different levels of revolutions. Taxation is often at the centre of citizens' grievances. Kenya has had its seasons of taxes and 'revolutions' and this is likely to continue. President William Ruto, who ignores history, is in danger of experiencing some sort of revolution due to the seeming insensitivity of his taxing policy.

Famous 'revolutions' partly started as rebellions against perceptions of unfair taxation. In the British American colonies, after the Seven Year War with France, the 1765 tax on official documents, or the stamp duty, prompted the Stamp Act Congress issuing such slogans as no taxation without representation and forced repeal. Another tax on tea inspired the dumping of tea in the Boston harbour, better known as the Boston Tea Party, which laid the background to fighting in 1775 and the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

France helped the English rebels across the Atlantic but then found itself cash-strapped. It looked for innovative tax ways to raise money and taxing the hapless poor initially looked like a solution. Among the problems in France was that aristocrats did not pay taxes although they lived large on state resources. Any attempt to make them pay taxes led to aristocratic rebellions which made poor King Louis XVI to cave in. Desperate for funds, he called the moribund Estate General to help him but he got nothing. Instead, he lost his head to the guillotine.