• "May be better may be worse, who knows. We do what we think can work if it isn't too bad. Doctors lose patients all the time despite their best efforts," Ndii said.
• Miguna termed the response "pathetic" coming from a man entrusted with advising the government on strategic economic policies.
Image: FILE
Lawyer Miguna Miguna has lashed out at the chair of the government's economic advisors David Ndii over his remarks that appeared to indicate that Kenya Kwanza's economic recovery strategy is mere guesswork.
Ndii made the assertion during an engagement with users on the social platform X who wanted to know whether the current economic outlook was going to worsen amid rising taxation or whether things would get better in the long run.
"But why do we have a Sh74 tax per litre? Why can't we cushion the shocks not by subsidies but by reducing taxes? Deductions have increased on salaries and on top of that fuel is not cushioned. How will we survive," one Imran Sokwala asked.
Ndii objected to this proposal saying "And how do we pay debt?".
He suggested that the Kenya Kwanza leadership campaigned on a platform of falsehoods by promising to lower taxes once they come to power when another user brought this matter up.
"But your boss (President) Ruto and (Deputy President) Gachagua said during campaign they knew where the economy was hurting and that in three months (100 days) Kenyans would give good testimonies. What went wrong after ascending to power?"
In response, Ndii said, "And you believed them?"
"Question is, will it get better or will it get progressively worse for the ten years you guys are going to be in power," asked @bwabiroy.
To this, Ndii said, "Maybe better maybe worse, who knows. We do what we think can work if it doesn't too bad. Doctors lose patients all the time despite their best efforts".
Miguna termed the response "pathetic" coming from a man entrusted with advising the government on strategic economic policies.
The outspoken lawyer said the President’s economic team must have strategies, plans and programmes aimed at solving Kenya’s intractable problems - both short-term and long-term.
"Unless we are speaking about voodoo economics," he said.
"If they have no practical strategies and plans, or they do not know whether those strategies and plans will work, then they should say so to the President and let him choose other qualified Kenyans to help steer the ship," Miguna said.
"But for the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors to premise his economic strategies and plans for the country on the basis of speculation and “it might work or fail, who knows?” is to take Kenyans for fools," he added.
The lawyer said it's incumbent upon the government of the day to come up with practical solutions to citizens' problems as opposed to "smugly" dismissing their concerns.
Miguna said Kenyans are sick and tired of hearing the same old failed economic policies and "deserve to hear respectful diagnosis and treatment plan from their Doctors of Economics and National Planning".
"That’s not too much for them to ask for. Is it? he posed.
The Kenya Kwanza government has from July imposed new tax measures via the Finance Act and is mooting introducing new ones under its Medium-Term Revenue Strategy for the period covering the 2024-25 and 2026-27 financial periods.
Besides the 1.5 per cent housing levy imposed by the Finance Act, the government is looking at raising VAT from 16 to 18 per cent and doing away with tax reliefs.
It is also looking at taxing insurance services and non-education services offered by schools such as swimming and introducing a wealth tax for those who acquire vehicles.
Treasury said the proposed reforms are aimed at expanding the revenue base to raise funds to finance government programmes for the remaining period of Vision 2030.
The impending extra taxes come at a time Kenyans are staring at tough economic times in the coming days courtesy of high fuel taxes whose ripple effect will undoubtedly hit the production sector resulting in high cost of living.
On Thursday, energy regulator Epra announced new fuel prices for the September-October cycle with prices crossing the Sh200 mark for the first time ever in the county's history.
In Nairobi, a litre of super petrol now retails at Sh211.64, Diesel at Sh200.99 and Kerosene at Sh202.61 after a Sh16.96, Sh21.32 and Sh33.13 price hike per litre respectively.