Taxation be distributed in a fair manner to reflect different class in society economic status

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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?

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.