KIBISU KABATESI: Uhuru shifts blame in tax speech

It’s my hobby to deconstruct presidential speeches for what they are not. On September 14, President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected the National Assembly Finance Bill that had suspended tax on petroleum products and thrown away shadowy taxes. He brought back all taxes, increased; deducted stipends to the poor. Here’s a gem on his invasion of your space in italics.

“Fellow Kenyans, as your President, I have a constitutional duty to ensure that legislative instruments presented for my signature conform to our national aspirations, fulfil government’s basic obligations to our people, and are implementable.”

In this para Uhuru sets out to assert himself, ensuring you know he’s President. Since you don’t remember if you voted for him, he’s saying that like it or not he became President anyway courtesy of the Constitution.

Then he begins insulating himself, hinting whatever he’s about to do is in your best interest. But not before he begins setting up Parliament as the guilty party.

“The Finance Bill 2018-19 brought to me yesterday fell short of this threshold. It protected the status quo and sacrificed the bigger vision. It took the easy path, instead of rising to the challenges of our time. It was good politics, but bad leadership.”

In two sentences, your President plays the leviathan, turns your world upside down, denounces the Bill, throwing Treasury mandarins and Jubilee under the bus. He’s playing your saviour, yet the Bill first passed through the Cabinet under his chairmanship.

“As you might know (We don’t but who cares? The President wants us to share in his decision), I returned it to Parliament with a number of modifications, designed to cure these shortcomings.”

Good grief! The taxes the National Assembly had rejected he had approved and punitively increased in his version sent back to Parliament. Removing Sh9 billion from devolution is a cure? The shortcomings?

“On average three times on whatever you make. You are penalised when you earn, receive money, spend it or bank it via banks and M-Pesa transactions. Government is criminalising ordinary business transactions...Budget cuts on elderly stipends, free maternity, free secondary education, roads, Equalisation Fund amounts to waging war on the poor and killing devolution,” ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi said.

Then the President dives into his favourite bogeyman, the Constitution. Whenever he’s run out options he returns to the subject of unwieldy offices the Constitution creates. Not long ago he blamed his helplessness in the fight against graft in his government, and incredibly in his office, on the Constitution restricting of his power. He laments,

“The 2010 Constitution widened Kenya’s democratic space; it also fundamentally altered the structures and functions of government. With it, we have seen a substantial increase in political and bureaucratic representation at every level: We now have two Houses of Parliament; the National Assembly has grown from 290 to 349 members; and our new Senate has 67 elected and nominated members. We also have 47 governors, 47 deputy governors, and 47 new county assemblies— in which sit more than a thousand MCAs. Additionally, we have 16 independent offices and commissions, excluding the Judiciary. As you can see, the enjoyment of our new rights is expensive, unprecedentedly so.”

It’s never been clear whether Uhuru was for or against the Constitution. But his deputy certainly was opposed. This rejectionist bug has bitten the President, it’s a chronic defence whenever Uhuru is cornered. However,

“We are very proud of the speed we have implemented the new Constitution, and devolved government to the people. Having transferred over a trillion shillings to county governments since 2013...That’s why we will continue to protect and entrench devolution and the new constitutional order, notwithstanding the cost.”

Seriously, when was the love between the Jubilee regime and devolution rekindled? Uhuru is telling too much half-truth, after which he relapses into the fall guys syndrome, attacking a Constitution sewn by devolution. Usage of “transferred” reawakens his sour discomfort with devolution. Note how he quotes “trillions” given to counties but doesn’t mention trillions his National government squanders.

Next week, how the President’s illusions of grandeur crowds out ordinary Kenyans and misses the point by hiding under petroleum tax to fleece Kenyans more

kibisu.kabatesi@gmail.com