Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers(Kuppet) officials in Busia county have urged the government to make the housing levy voluntary.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, some of the officials criticised the levy, expressing their disapproval of the Finance Bill 2023.
Busia's Kuppet executive secretary Moffat Okisai Omunyin said teachers cannot bear the burden of housing levy since some of them are servicing loans.
“You can’t force a person or cow to drink water and they don’t want to. Those teachers have taken loans, they are on mortgages, they have built houses and therefore, adding more burdens to them is a no,” Omunyin said.
“Let the housing scheme be made voluntary not compulsory.”
Another official said that they won't be able to support unemployed Kenyans yet they are also unable to meet their own needs.
“Our payslips are in ICU. Please listen to the remarks of the teachers. Yes, you are saying others don’t have payslips, we have not refused. But it was not our fault to have payslips while others don't,” the official said.
He added that some Kenyans are lazy and they won’t take part in paying their bills.
“We are encouraging laziness in the country. When I work hard, I deserve to get something and better my life. And someone else is lazy, now you want me to pay for the sins of that person, No,” the official said.
On May 25, 2023, The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Trans-Nzoia county, urged the government to raise teachers' salaries before deducting the three per cent housing levy.
The group said they have several financial commitments to honour and as such, they have no money left for the housing levy.
"As teachers, we voted for President William Ruto because we believed we will benefit from his bottom-up strategy but so far, that is not the case," Knut secretary George Wanjala said.
The union claimed that they have not received any salary increment for the past five years yet they are paying loans.
The teachers union threatened to hold a strike if the housing levy proposal is passed.
