By Chris Wamalwa in USA

House speaker Kenneth Marende apparently escaped the wrath of Kenyans living in the US over the raging taxation issue when he cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled with them Monday.

It is believed that the Speaker, who has been in Europe since the taxation saga exploded on the national scene, was under pressure from members of Parliament to rush back home to provide direction on the issue. It was reported in the media that fifty-six MPs had petitioned Marende to recall Parliament to discuss the tax issue, which pits legislators against the electorate.

Marende was therefore forced to skip his date with Kenyans in the US despite the fact that the Kenyan Embassy in the US had extensively advertised the

meeting. Kenyans in the Diaspora have been frustrated and angered by reports that the MPs are once again trying to wriggle out paying taxes as directed by Kenya Revenue Authority.

Marende was to meet with Kenyans living in the US at a cocktail party hosted by Kenya’s ambassador to the USA, Elkanah Odembo at his residence

commonly known as ‘Kenya House’.

In preparation for the meeting, leaders of civil society and religious groups and individual Kenyans who had been seething with anger over MPs apparent refusal to pay taxes had prepared a petition to be presented to Marende. In the petition, the Diaspora want members of parliament to pay taxes without exemption.

"We urge the House Speaker to make MPs awaken to the reality that in the new Kenya every group of people, MPs included will have to carry their own weight. The MPs must pay taxes as stipulated in the new constitution", a statement signed by Moses Marango of Houston, Texas read in part.

Mr Marango said the refusal by MPs to pay taxes does not only undermine the spirit of the

constitution but also negates its passage. "How can ordinary Kenyans believe in the constitution that the legislators don’t respect?" he asked.

Speaking to the Standard on the phone after learning that the speaker had skipped the meeting in DC, Erastus Mong’are, President of Delaware Kenya

Association asked President Kibaki and PM Raila Odinga to impress upon the MPs the need to respect the new constitution.

"If the MPs completely refuse to pay taxes, we in Diaspora shall join other Kenyans back at home in petitioning the Chief Justice to dissolve parliament so that we can elect representatives who are sensitive to the country’s needs", he said.

The latest controversy follows a recent directive by KRA that MPs and other public servants previously exempted from paying taxes start doing so as

is stipulated in the new constitution. Previous attempts in 2007 and 2009 to force MPs pay taxes failed due to the old constitutional order that the lawmakers easily manipulated to their advantage.

Characteristic of Kenyan MPs, their reaction has been refusal to pay and threats to paralyse parliament and the implementation of the new constitution.

KRA has twice in the past attempted and failed to have MPs pay tax. And in both attempts, the efforts were thwarted by court rulings because the old Constitution allowed the exemptions. That is why the President, MPs, Commissioners and judges have enjoyed tax exemptions.

But this is no longer the case as the new constitution clearly states in Article 210(3) that, "No law may exclude or authorise the exclusion of a State officer

from payment of tax."