On Tuesday, the Jubilee government announced that at the end of April, all employees will be forced to “contribute” 1.5 percent of their monthly salary to the proposed National Housing Fund.
According to the government, every employee is to be deducted 1.5 percent at the end of every month with the employer presenting a similar percent for every employee for the construction of “affordable housing.”
The government, under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big 4 Agenda, has a dream of constructing 500,000 “affordable housing units” for Kenyans, and Kenyans have to pay for it “wapende wasipende.”
Amani National Congress Leader Musalia Mudavadi has said that
With the high cost of basic commodities soaring and a biting drought, it is foolhardy to load the employee and employer with additional taxation through
MP Babu Owino has also said that the cost is too expensive and oppressive.
Has the government worked on stopping corruption?
Currently, corruption scandals have amounted to a total of 6,652,459,800,000 shillings since 2013 under President Uhuru’s governance, according to Corruption Tracker. That is a whole 6.7 trillion shillings gone into the pockets of few individuals.
Is it a priority?
The government should be thinking of constructing dams and taking stock of the amount of maize in the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) across the country.
Turkana and Baringo Counties are the most affected with some people have died as a result of hunger and thirst. All the 47 counties are going to be affected by the ongoing drought.
Kenyans are already overburdened with taxes. They are paying the Pay As You Earn (PAYE), the Value Added Tax (VAT) of 16 percent, the Value Added Tax (VAT) of 8 percent on petroleum products, the presumptive tax of 15 percent among others.