BY JAMES MUTUA
Nairobi Residents During a Townhall Meeting in Pumwani. Picture: Handout
Action Aid and National Taxpayers Association, Monday held townhall meeting with residents from Nairobi to educate the residents on the controversial Finance Bill 2023.
In a statement which was read by members of the community, pointed out that the Finance Bill 2023, which is set for the committee of the whole house stage, have proposals that crosscut several sectors of the economy that are bound to affect the operation of different
sectors of the economy.
Among the takeaways from the townhall meeting was specified as that the government had not highlighted inclusivity of persons with disabilities in the housing project.
Caroline Wahu from Kibira Disable said the right representation of PWD’s was important for the development agenda and thanked the organizations for the continuous empowerment programmes to the community.
Lynn Mbuthia from ACTIVISTA urged participants to come out and fight for their rights saying that housing opportunities were a basic right for both women and PWD’s.
On her side, ActionAid Program Officer Ms. Mercy Gichengi emphasized the need to hold the government into account and curb wastage.
Today we hold this townhall meeting where we brought the community together so that they can learn more about the finance bill 2023 and the changes that have taken place. We have brought the community together so that they can articulate on issues around accountability and so that they are able to hold their representatives into account. We are calling all our representatives and the government to curb corruption and wastage because we feel there’s a lot of taxes that we collect as citizens of Kenya bit they are not put in the right spaces – it goes into different spaces where it doesn’t benefit the common mwananchi.
Said Mercy Gichenga, ActionAid Program Officer.
Thomi John from National Taxpayers Association reiterated that the government should seal the leakages and reduce unnecessary spending. He added that the citizens were willing to pay for their taxes but they should also get value for their money.
Other matters which came upon during the town hall meeting were that the government should regulate the prices of imported cement which they said should not be uniform and the tax of fuel which they said should not be 16%.
Others were the tax on vaccine and malaria kit which they said should be dropped and the affordability of basic (food) commodity which they emphasized should be addressed through incentivizing farm inputs.
ActionAid is a non-partisan, non-religious development organisation and have been working in Kenya since 1972 to end poverty and injustices.
