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During President Uhuru Kenyatta's speech on Tuesday this week, it was clear that the farmers will be the great beneficiaries of his new plan for 2020. He said that rice, potato, banana, tea, coffee, and milk farmers would receive money from the National Treasury. Clearly, this was a directive to the Treasury CS Ukur Yatani to release the money even if it was not budgeted for.
The latest reports have shown that the government is implementing a wide range of austerity measures aimed at reducing the cost of foreign trips and advertising. It is also evident that certain government agencies and parastatals will be affected by the new budget cuts. There is a huge budget deficit because the collected revenue is not enough.
So my question is, where is Uhuru expecting these billions of money he promised farmers to come from in the middle of a budget deficit? Is it another Chinese loan, or what? But either way, the farmers will enjoy it for once, but that will lead to public accounting problems in the future.
Another thing is that the President vowed to increase money lent to small business owners. He promised to boost the Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises in his new plan. This comes at a time when the KRA is planning to collect a 3% tax on sales made by small business owners across the country.
Mr. President! Is it not wise to halt the KRA's new taxation policy before it takes root? How do you expect to boost small businesses if this policy is implemented? Or maybe this is another of your empty promises. Maybe it is. Maybe it is not. But, either way, your statements in Mombasa's speech were contradicting what the Jubilee government is actually doing. And that is a problem.