Why playing the tax card is always a political hot potato

President William Ruto (centre) with a section of Kenya Kwanza leaders during the 2023 parliamentary seminar in Mombasa County. [PCS, Standard]

Taxes and taxation has always been a hot potato in any political dispensation. More often than not, those in power are always seen as burdening the populace that is always reluctant to pay new levies.

President William Ruto has pegged his administration's delivery of services on an ambitious budget that he wants taxpayers to fund and not debt. As a result of this the opposition has lurched on the Kenya Kwanza's proposals on taxes to claim the mwananchi has been overburdened and in return, the president thinks it is the work of saboteurs who are behind the protests.