Azimio leader Raila Odinga asks employers not to remit the Housing Levy

Azimio leader Raila Odinga. [File, Standard]

Azimio leader Raila Odinga has urged employers across the country not to remit the Housing Levy.

This was after the courts declared the levy unconstitutional and later gave stay orders up to January 10, 2024, to give government time to appeal its decision.

“The housing levy was declared unconstitutional; the stay does not make it constitutional. We urge employers not to pay it,” he said during a press briefing on Wednesday evening.

In yet another defiant move, the opposition leader has partly opposed the final report by the national dialogue committee, days after the Kimani Ichungwah and Kalonzo Musyoka-led committee presented its final report to the public, after months of holding the talks.

Raila has termed the report as ‘imperfect, unfinished but a good beginning’.

“After three months of negotiations, NADCO submitted its report last Sunday. The talks were preceded by a stolen election, amid a high cost of living which has only gotten worse,” Raila says.

“We thank Kenyans for exercising patience as dialogue continued. The document the team has come up with is imperfect, unfinished but a good beginning,”

As a result, Raila has vowed to engage his supporters in the coming weeks.

“We will be engaging Kenyans further in the coming weeks... In those coming weeks Kenyans will be dealing with increased school fees,” he says.

However, the former prime minister says some of the issues raised by his team during the talks were addressed although there was a loud silence on how to address the issue of high cost of living despite his team proposing a complete amendment of the Finance Act, 2023.

“Our team was able to get positive results on a number of issues: electoral justice, transfer of devolved functions and requisite resources to county governments as well as 20 percent equitable share, ward development fund,”

“We are disappointed the committee did not agree on the one fundamental issue that has united Kenyans... The high cost of living. It was not lack of trying on our part. We had hoped as the talks progressed, when life got harder, Kenya Kwanza would have empathy,”