OPINION: Bullish legislative talk or posturing is ultimately bad tax politics

By Leonard Wanyama

Considering the current administration’s promise of a Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), some of the recent comments by select politicians or officials concerning the Finance Bill 2023 are rubbing the public the wrong way.

Kenyans expect that the pursuit of policy consensus will ensure public participation, governmental accountability, societal non-discrimination, community empowerment, and widespread legitimacy through a process of dignified compromises.

However, the citizenry’s infantilization in budget conversations especially during these hard economic times may be a pill too hard to swallow for many Kenyans.

The consequences may manifest in various forms that are bound to further affect the economy negatively thereby worsening the situation.

Suspicions of any exemptions for public officials in the tax proposals are likely to soil the mood further.

This is because Kenyans understand that even though mistakes have previously been made, public resources are not like a river you can continually fetch water from without any consequences.

Using that analogy further, it becomes obvious that without proper care for the environment rivers and streams dry up.

Subsequently, legislators should handle the current budget debates delicately based on the knowledge that citizens’ dissatisfaction on this matter has been building over the past 5 years.

According to the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) 2021 revenue collection perception study, most Kenyans do not think they receive good value from the government in return for the taxes they pay.

Moreover, they don’t think that the government makes good use of tax revenues for their benefit despite Kenyans fulfilling their obligations as much as possible considering their acknowledgment - at 86 percent of the sample size - that indeed the impact of debt is a very serious problem.

During these budget conversations, legislators should therefore know that the only way of encouraging tax compliance is by championing human rights-based approaches that establish a fiscal democracy.

This is by using their oversight role to guarantee effective and proper government delivery of services.

Many Kenyans are unwilling to pay taxes because most public goods are wanting and so they are likely to abscond on national revenue obligations due to what they consider an unfair situation in which they remit payments for little or no gain.

Bullish posturing, therefore, aggravates citizens more and inadvertently gives members of the public real-time justification to engage in either tax evasion or avoidance schemes because they become cynical of the government’s intentions.

What is likely to follow is the current administration will struggle to prepare for the next emergency – be it a pandemic or whatever possible disaster- and continue to be carelessly burdened by the strain of debt, be it odious or otherwise.

Legislators should therefore take this opportunity as a moment to carry out civic education to their constituents rather than conducting another political battle among themselves.

Empowering citizens in this way will allow for much-needed familiarization with public finance laws among other procedures, the formation of engagement forums, the establishment of dispute resolution mechanisms, and provision of much-needed feedback to revenue collection authorities.

Also, this is a better way of linking constitutionally established rights to citizens’ responsibilities in a practical manner because it enlightens them of existing problems and prospects without causing offence.

It would therefore show that politicians respect the social contract they are elected to uphold on account of being representatives of the people who respond to community expectations on development.

Otherwise, the abrasive rhetoric will not only delay economic obligations like payment of civil servants or disbursement to counties, but it will heighten public misgivings and feed into other forces such as the paused public protests that have proven disruptive to the national calendar of social activities such as opening of schools.

Quite simply, don’t trigger Kenyans to the streets once again.

The author is Regional Coordinator of the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN). Follow on Twitter: @lennwanyama.