Azimio leader Raila Odinga has said the coalition will in the new year mount pressure on the Kenya Kwanza government to cut taxes, which he says we have "never witnessed in our 60-year history as a country.".
In his New Year statement on Sunday, Raila said Kenyan families are struggling with record-high price inflation because taxes have pushed the prices of essentials such as groceries and fuel out of control.
"Taxes are consuming close to half of earnings by people and businesses. The administration cares nothing about the financial wellbeing of Kenyan families and businesses," he said.
"We will form a broad-based anti-tax campaign to pursue, through different avenues and methods, budget cuts that would allow Kenyans to keep much more of their hard-earned money."
Kenyans have, as of July 1, paid new taxes introduced via the controversial Finance Act, 2023, that was signed into law by President William Ruto on June 26.
The Act introduced, among other measures, a 1.5 per cent housing levy on the gross pay of salaried Kenyans, raised PAYE from 30 to 35 per cent and doubled Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel from eight to 16 per cent.
The taxes were implemented in phases on July 1, September 1, while the final round of the tax measures will take effect on January 1, 2024.
Raila said the opposition will launch a full-fledged war against the prevailing taxes and will ask MPs not to endorse any proposal to establish new taxes.
"We are going to press for a taxation plan that provides for an across-the-board income tax rate reduction for all Kenyans who pay income taxes," he said.
"We will also institute measures to repeal the policy of taxing remittance flows from the diaspora because it is a bad idea. Other than amounting to double taxation, it also punishes those who went abroad simply because Kenya could not provide for them."
Raila claimed that due to government's punitive tax regime, the hospitality and tourism industry has suffered as hotels, lodges and resorts recorded low bookings due to a depressed economy and repressive taxes.
"We are going to fight these taxes on multiple fronts," Raila said.
While speaking in his rural constituency of Bondo on Saturday, Raila said the opposition will have no qualms about resuming anti-government street protests if the Kenya Kwanza government fails to remove the Finance Act, 2023.
He said the new taxes introduced via the Act are behind the rising cost of living which has made life for the ordinary Kenyan unbearable as government shows no sign of action.
"We are in distress as we cross into the New Year. The distress is unraveling uncomfortably and uncontrollably. The government is fueling it but has no plan for containing it," Raila said.
