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A proposal to review the draconian Electronic Tax Invoice Requirement System (E-TIMs) against primary farm producers has exposed Mps as praise and worship team in Parliament.
The Kenya Kwanza Mps as opposed to discharging their cardinal duty of legislation in Parliament reduced themselves to President William Ruto’s cheering ane jeering squad a role, political pundits believe is denying them to evaluate and interrogate the bills as opposed to waiting for their speaker to pose for a question for them to approve the bills.
Just this week, Mps, without coercion confessed that they did not read the whole Finance Act and while defending their acts, likened themselves with pasties who they claimed are not able to read the while Bible.
Mary Wamaua (Maragua) who was part of the Mps who utilized every available opportunity where members of public cared to listen was part of the larger team who praised the Finance Act but has changed tone after realizing how dire the situation is in the ground resulting to play ignorant of the law-making process.
‘To those asking why Kenya Kwanza MPs passed the Finance Act without noticing and removing some proposed taxes such as the new avocado tax, the Finance bill is a big document to know every nitty gritty. Ask pastors who have a Bible by their side every day, they can’t know all the verses in the Bible,” said the second term Mp.
She said she was opposed to taxation of primary producers in Agriculture and even wondered whether other sectors such as fish, maize and pastoralists claiming the requirement seemed to touch on different crops in Mt Kenya region.
The Mp was part of the leaders who joined their farmers at Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s official residence in Karen to seek ways of temporary mesures of halting the implementation of the section in the Finance Act.
She was in the company of Mps Chege Njuguna (Kandara) Edward Muriu (Gatanga) John Mutunga (Tigania West) Joseph Munyoro (Kigumo) and Kirinyaga Senator Kamau Murango.
“There is there is nowhere in the world where Agriculture is subjected to taxation, instead, countries subsidize Agriculture. The section is an omnibus which should be amended to exempt players in Agriculture so that taxation is only done when one does value additions or in the export,” Muriu said.
In a veiled attack against the MPs Kirinyaga Senator Kamau Murango read the MPs a Bible verse from Isaiah that condemns law makers for unjust laws.
“Pastors are now fond of reading Isaiah 10:1-2 that says woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless,” the Senator said.
He said it was an absurdity to tax the avocado sub-sector which the government has invested little in equiting the move as a plot of milking a cow one never fed.
The farmers who disregarded the ‘honorable’ title to the elected class and demanded that they always involve stakeholders in the policy making process and to seek more time before passing the laws saying were it not for the interventions of the Deputy President, the sector would go down and leave farmers exposed.
“You can’t come here and tell us you did not read the Finance Act because it’s a big document, while we know you can seek more time for you to read and comprehend the bill before approving it,” Hassan Kamua, a farmer said in the forum.
Sharon Wanjiku, an aggregator, told the legislators that failure to involve stakeholders in the law-making process was to blame for the passage of policies that aimed at drawing back the gains made in the avocado sector.
“If we stakeholders were involved in the law-making process and their considerations put in place, we won’t be here seeking ways in which we shall review the already made laws which are being implemented,” she said.
However, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua likened the Finance Act as an exam, where one gets 70 percent ‘but of course there are corrections to be made, which a teacher goes pointing out in red.
To avoid public ridicule and shame in future, political analyst Chege Kigane advised that even though the Mps should be seen to be showing their tyranny of numbers and appeasing their master’s they ought to read to understand the bills as opposed to reading to approve the bills.
“Where there are issues in the proposed legislation, they ought to look for their boss albeit out of the public glare and advise him of consequences of such bills which includes failure of being reelected in the future elections,” Kigane said.
