Jubilee government should give hope to poor

Jubilant Kenyans witnessed the Kenya @ 50 fete at Kasarani. Photo/PHOEBE OKALL


After winning the presidency backed by euphoric support in March, the Jubilee government dampened the spirits of most Kenyans by pushing through tax amendments that inflated the cost of basic consumer items that were previously tax exempt.

For a levy that was expected to raise Sh10 billion by the Treasury estimates, the imposition of 16 per cent value added tax (VAT) on consumer goods appeared like a poor calculation for the young administration, but it nevertheless pushed it through.

A survey done by research firm Ipsos-Synovate revealed the extent of low popularity and economic pain that the new taxes have visited on Kenyans.

About 70 per cent of the Kenyans interviewed in the survey said they had low expectations that the New Year would come with a drop in the cost of living. This was a sharp increase in the level of pessimism from 26 per cent who thought the cost of living would rise at the beginning of 2013.

Dim prospects for getting a new job as well as rising insecurity has made majority of Kenyans to lose confidence.

In the survey that captured responses from 1,619 interviewees, 60 per cent expressed fears that inflation will worsen in the coming year, 37 per cent thought the problem of unemployment would persist, one-third (33 per cent) said crime and insecurity would soar, while 37 per cent are braced for increased political bickering at the expense of beneficial economic discourse.

As the Ipsos-Synovate Kenya managing director Maggie Ireri noted, Kenya’s story has been one of macro-economic growth, without a trickle-down of real benefits to the citizens.

The government has been literally throwing big money at the problem by initiating mega infrastructure projects, but extreme poverty and unemployment appears to persist.

The only visible beneficiaries of the State’s largesse are civil servants who use their offices for personal enrichment as well as well-connected businesses that are used as conduits for siphoning public money.

It is said that one cannot expect a different outcome by doing something in the same way over and over again.

The economy has grown consistently in the past decade, but the number of unemployed remains worryingly high, crime and urban slum housing has increased and there is a general disillusionment for the masses who live from hand-to-mouth.

The Jubilee government must look at ways of easing economic pain for the poor. Widening the tax net, and not raising or imposing new levies, must be embraced as the sustainable way to grow government revenue. Economic growth that only benefits a fraction of the population is a recipe for social unrest.