Ruto: Why we are increasing tax on cement, steel and furniture imports

President William Ruto says his government is keen on relieving the burden on foreign currency and boosting local production through shedding off what he terms as unnecessary imports.

The president on Sunday cited cement, steel, furniture and farm produce as some of the imports his government seeks to increase taxation on in a bid to grow local production.

“There are things we are importing today that we should not be importing; cement, steel, and furniture. We are spending so much money to import things when we can manufacture locally. That is why we have put a levy on the import of these unnecessary imports of products into Kenya so that we can stem the export of our foreign currency and manufacture those items locally,” Ruto told a televised joint media roundtable at State House, Nairobi.

According to Ruto, Kenya spends Ksh.500 billion on food imports annually unlike neighbours such as Uganda and Tanzania do not spend as much because they have invested in local production.

“We are importing 500 billion shillings of food items every year. From edible oil to maize, and rice; Uganda and Tanzania do not import that much food. Why? Because we haven't paid that much attention to agriculture,” he said.

President Ruto said he plans that by next year, Kenya will not be importing maize into but instead be producing enough.

Recently, Ruto said his government is planning to boost the local leather production industry by increasing taxes on imports to compel citizens to purchase local items.

“We are going to promote our own manufactured products. So far, we have finished negotiations to set aside 5,000 acres where we are going to put up large leather industries,” the president said on Thursday at Kimalel in Baringo County.

“After three years, we will not import any shoes from other countries. If somebody cannot buy a shoe made with the skin of a Kenyan cow, they can walk barefoot...no problem. Or we can increase tax so that we collect more revenues.”