(CISA news).
“We are not against taxes. We believe taxes are a good thing to bring and uplift the common Kenyan and to give social welfare. However, it must be in a rational way. Can we rationalise how we approach the taxes? Can we have a program that is within a year, five years, six years, ten years where we want to reach let us not try to achieve everything at a go at the expense of our Kenyans especially the very poor,” stated Most Rev Anthony Muheria of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri.
Addressing Journalists on June 16 at Our Lady of Consolata Cathedral in Nyeri town, the Vice Chairperson of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) urged the Kenya Kwanza government to re-evaluate its approach to tax reforms, which he termed as disordered and disconnected from the needs of the people.
“Let’s not mince our words. We are overtaxing our people and this disordered, disconnected, disjointed plan of increasing taxes or looking for new areas of getting taxes have a negative impact on our economy and it is going to seriously injure the ordinary Kenyan,” stated Archbishop Muheria.
“If currently, our students in our school are not receiving capitation. If currently, NHIF cannot pay the bills even of the faith-based hospitals, if there is such a huge debt and so many hospitals have stopped taking the NHIF card, then why the taxes? If currently, we are also having the problems that we want to remove the support of students in universities, which family is going to support two children in university with two hundred thousand shillings a year,” remarked the vocal prelate.