Learn from dairy farmers; calm taxpayers and then milk them

Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua(centre), Ministry of Co-operatives CS Simon Chelugui (left), Kenya Creameries Cooperation Managing Director Nickson Sigei (right) and other officials test different flavors of milk at Dandora KCC when the deputy president visited the plant on June 28, 2023. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard] Permit me to start with the obvious. The government of Kenya does not pay taxes. Kenyans do. Whether employed or not, Kenyans have faithfully been paying all manner of taxes and have been doing so since time immemorial without raising the type of anger they have collectively expended in response to the current taxation structure. In fact, many Kenyans out there do not even know how many taxes they pay. It is the government that knows the taxes it levies and it's the very same government that has kicked up the row over the increased taxation it has now forced down the throats of Kenyans though Parliament. Why then would new taxation proposals raise so much public hue and cry? Precisely because of the brazen and seemingly rough way the government has approached the tax issue. It's as if the government is looking at tax as a form of collective punishment rather than voluntary obligations of its citizens. Some within its ranks have even dared to revisit the old expression of force, 'mpende msipende' (whether you like it or not) "we shall pass the finance bill in Parliament". Since the government is obliged by the Constitution to raise revenue through taxation, nobody within Kenya can escape this burden but how the authorities have gone about reminding Kenyans of the tax obligations appears to be largely the cause of the problem. Perhaps because of the shock therapy of confronting dry coffers it found when it came into power, the government went straight into a panicky mood and that mood is what has basically informed the seeming impatience and rough handling of Kenyans on their obligatory duty to pay tax. In all the objections raised by Kenyans, the government should note that not a single protest seeks to bar them from paying taxes. Indeed, what Kenyans have been asking from the government is not an exception from paying taxes but that the taxation process should not be as harsh or punitive as it appears. In other words, let the government approach taxes with a human and not a monster face. Much like a doctor who has to perform a delicate surgery on a patient, let government apply the right portion of anesthesia to sufficiently numb the patient so that he is spared the tragedy of going through the surgery and feeling the full pain that comes with it. What the government is doing to Kenyans is applying the catharsis rule as it were, subjecting them to the full pain of paying the taxes. Just like milking a cow, the farmer keeps his cow solely to milk it for his daily use and surplus to raise extra cash. But in return for the milk, the farmer must nourish the cow, keep it in healthy condition and provide it with the necessary ingredients that assure him of that steady flow of the milk. And when it comes to milking, the farmer must entice and persuade the cow to remain still during the entire milking. The farmer will therefore not milk the cow on the run. But what the government is trying to do is akin to wanting to milk a cow on the run. Just like the farmer who has run out of milk and wants to force the cow to produce it, the government, in its quest to raise more money to fill the budgetary hole has apparently closed its mind to the gentle way of milking its cow. It has forgotten that the cow has been giving its milk without knowing or caring to know how many litres or how its milk is used by those milking it. Now that the government has had its way and the president has signed the contentious finance bill into law, let the tax authorities approach the collection of tax with a human face. Let them be like the robber who spares the victim so that he can make more money for them to rob him in future. Equally critical is the demand for accountability on the part of the government in the use of the taxes it collects. So far, the government and its agents are not demonstrating diligence in the use of the country's resources. Kenyans pay taxes but they do not plan how to deploy the revenues sourced through taxation. The government does and often with serious flaws and excesses. To start with, despite its protestations that it found near empty coffers - they could not have been totally empty - the government continues to live beyond its means through more borrowing. Apart from the spending spree that has characterised its few months in office, most of it on mundane and none economic activities that appear to contravene its own campaign pledges to cut back expenditure, government has gone full throttle in new borrowing that makes its campaign promise of cutting back to sound like a very big joke. Yet some of the expenditure such as the weekly thanksgiving church-based events are clearly unnecessary. In its response to this whole issue of taxation, the government often falls short of telling Kenyans, including the unborn, how many taxes they pay. Take a fellow who runs a hotel and restaurant in Kenya. This person is charged a single business licence, a liquor licence, a music copyright licence, a health licence, a fire and safety licence, a tourism fund licence, an NHIF levy for every employee, an NSSF levy for every worker. For the use of electricity in the premises, the hotelier is charged power levies including fuel costs and then taxed on VAT. The point here is that Kenyans pay taxes that are truly excessive yet, like the cow, they have paid faithfully because the owner of the cow has exercised a great deal of persuasion. But when the government appears to be walking roughshod on Kenyan taxpayers, they have reason to get angry.

Learn from dairy farmers; calm taxpayers and then milk them

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