Today I have spent the morning with young men and women who sail into the deep sea to catch and later sell fish in Mombasa.
It was quite an experience (it got my heart beating fast) and a dangerous one. I was on a canoe with a fisherman Saddique Mwinyi alias Blackdudu, pulling and laying nets in the deep sea off Pirates Beach in Mombasa’s north coast.
The work is hard, the conditions trying and it was scary to realize that the canoe we were in was leaking and my fellow fisherman was busy using a small container to remove water from the canoe. He told me he does not have enough money to repair the boat because the income he gets is barely enough to survive on.
I paused to make sure my life jacket was on tightly.
These young Kenyans are working hard but earn very little due to a depressed economy and unemployment opportunities. They are part of the TUMECHOKA movement that I am leading.
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As we study the estimates presented by the National Government, I call for a stoppage of the introduction of new taxes that will burden already suffering Kenyans.
There should be no new taxes. Essential commodities and activities such as food and transportation, cost of fuel, cost of power, etc should actually be reduced and not taxed. Kenyans are tired.
In actual fact, what is needed is a subsidy program that funds food production and distribution so that the price of unga, rice, cooking oil and other essential commodities, come down to affordable levels.
The estimates announced by Hon. Minister Henry Rotich has a glaring hole of about a trillion shillings. This should not be plugged by new taxes but by other creative ways such as reducing exaggerated costs of projects, ensuring fast completion of projects, efficient service delivery and stopping the massive theft of public funds.
We are tired of being taxed heavily, then the money we pay is stolen by a few honchos whose work is to cut deals and bribe churches using our stolen money so that we can be taxed some more.
The author Dr. Alfred N. Mutua is a second-term Machakos Governor
