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Raila promises to push for end of oppression, high taxation

**Azimio Leader Raila Odinga and Siaya Governor James Orengo during the official launch of the annual Migwena Sports and Cultural Festival in Siaya County on December 30, 2023.** [Courtesy, Standard]

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has vowed to organise Kenyans to liberate themselves from oppression and exploitation in 2024.

In his New Year message, Raila said the year 2023 has ended with difficulties just as it had started and Kenyans were distressed by what he described as the highest cost of living and levels of taxation never witnessed in 60 years.

The opposition leader said in 2024, citizens shall exercise the sovereign power of the people to stop death and suffering in the nation.

The former prime minister claimed the Kenya Kwanza Alliance regime was a curse and told Kenyans to join hands and stop it from ruining the country.

“We are willing to build a coalition of citizens who are willing to plan, mobilise, and organise effectively to reclaim and take back our nation. When that time comes, we expect all Kenyans to set aside their differences and engage in actions to restore dignity to livelihoods,” he said.

The Azimio La Umoja leader said there was a time when the government’s word counted and wananchi did not have to doubt but today, Kenyans have to cross-check and double-check whatever the government says because “the Kenya Kwanza regime has made lying a tool for governing.”

He said there are many issues that citizens look forward to canvassing in the New Year.

In a week’s time, Raila said “schools will open but they are in a mess. Since the National Rainbow Coalition regime of 2002, Kenya has pursued a policy of free and compulsory basic education, by and large, money has followed learners.”

“That dedicated support for free and compulsory education has stopped under Kenya Kwanza. It is happening unannounced. The government is supposed to send Sh22,440 per student per year to secondary schools. It is also supposed to send Sh1,200 per year for every primary school pupil,” said Raila.

Capitation fraud

The opposition leader said secondary schools got only Sh12,000 per student in 2023 and the whereabouts of the other half of the money is unknown, adding that monies long released by the National Treasury are disappearing at the Ministry of Education while learners and teachers suffer.

“As a party, we have tasked our MPs to push and we also plan to go to court to force the Ministry of Education to release full capitation to schools, both primary and secondary, so that schools can start the year smoothly. Why would a government deny a primary school child her Sh1,200 in a year? We also want the Exchequer and HELB to release loans to university students,” said Raila.

He said that the same must apply to Technical Vocational Education Training institutions and teacher training colleges which have now resorted to charging parents exorbitantly.

He also demanded that Universities Funding Board release scholarship money to students who are unable to pay fees.

Raila said the government must keep its word and absorb the Junior Secondary School teachers who have served as interns for one year since they had been promised to transit to permanent and pensionable status but are now being told to serve as interns for another year.

He said they have information that some officials at the Ministry of Education are not only creating fictitious schools but are also interfering with the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) data provided by teachers to inflate or decrease student numbers and create non-existent schools to which money is sent

Raila said that Kenyan families continue to struggle with record-high price inflation, with the price of groceries, petroleum products, and other essentials out of control as a result of high taxes.

He said talked of the formation of a broad-based anti-tax campaign to pursue, through different avenues and methods, budget cuts that would allow Kenyans to keep much more of their hard-earned money.

“We are going to press for a taxation plan that provides for an across-the-board income tax rate reduction for all Kenyans who pay income taxes. We will ask our lawmakers to reject any proposal to establish new taxes on anything. Through different avenues, we will also continue to fight the taxes that came into force last July,” said Raila.

He said that Kenya was suffering from the highest rate of tax on salaries which had jumped from 30 per cent to 35 per cent, a new 1.5 per cent housing tax, a 2.75 per cent hospital insurance fund levy, a 3 per cent turnover (gross sales) tax on small businesses and a doubling of VAT on fuel to 16 per cent, among others.

The former Prime Minister said that they are going to fight these taxes on multiple fronts.

“Behind all the pain that have befallen Kenyans under the Kenya Kwanza regime is corruption. The old and primitive form of corruption is back, domiciled at key institutions like the Kenya National Trading Corporation, the Ministries of Energy and Petroleum, the National Treasury, Health and Education. It is spreading,” said Raila.

Companies fleeing

The former prime minister said that foreign companies are fleeing and local ones are downsizing, with the majority of the so-called ‘hustlers’ currently being robbed and taxed into poverty.

“The Kenya Kwanza government has gone to war against the future, against the young. The young people who were told bottom-up policies would dismantle the dynasties now realize they are being forced to participate in the creation of a new dynasty,” said Raila.

He said that as Kenyans go through the worst time in their lives, the corrupt in government are having the best time of their lives.