By Basillioh Rukanga, NAIROBI
Kenya
Kenya is braced for the latest
in a series of opposition protests against the rising cost of living and tax
hikes, which have turned violent, with at least 24 people killed in recent
months.
Courtesy
During last year's
presidential election, James Wainaina, a taxi driver in the capital, Nairobi,
voted for William Ruto, who portrayed himself as the candidate of what he
called the "hustler nation" - ordinary people struggling to get by.
But now Mr Wainaina feels
betrayed and supports the protests.
Since President Ruto came to
office, prices have continued to soar, while his government has raised taxes.
Mr Ruto says the extra revenue
is needed for escalating debt repayments and to fund projects to create jobs,
but the tax rises have made life even harder for the poorest Kenyans.
Mr Wainaina's daughter, a high
school student, recently stayed at home for three weeks because he was unable
to pay her 14,000-shilling ($100; £75) school fees.
Mr Wainaina says his business
has declined because of the cost-of-living crisis.
He gets fewer clients and
nearly all his earnings now go into simply keeping his car on the road.
Five years ago, he could make
up to 4,000 shillings a day, enough to cover his basic necessities, including
school fees, he says.
He laments there are times he now goes home with just 500 shillings after expenses "which is not enough to fuel the car the next day".
"It is very difficult for
us," he says. The government, he adds, has not made it easy for small
businesses, especially the "hustlers" .
Mr Wainaina says they were
lied to.
"It doesn't seem like
things will be better, you see [the president] lied to us, we are being
oppressed, things are becoming difficult. When the cost of fuel goes up, the price
of everything else goes up, even electricity. Things are becoming worse."
Even those who still support
the government are expressing "a considerable level of unhappiness with
the current state of affairs", according to the latest survey by a local
polling firm, Tifa.
Its survey shows that 56% of
Kenyans think the country is heading in the wrong direction, up from 48% in
March.
The polling firm suggests the
discontentment may be feeding into the support for opposition protests.
At least 24 people have been
killed in recent protests
Government data show that the
prices of some key food products have risen considerably in the 12 months to
June - with the staples - maize, grain and flour - increasing by up to 30%,
rice and potatoes by nearly 20% and sugar costing nearly 60% more.
Despite that, in the finance
bill which became law on 1 July, the government doubled the value-added tax on
fuel products from 8% to 16%, and introduced a 1.5% housing levy on employees'
basic pay, with an equivalent amount paid by the employer.
The levy is supposed to go to
a fund to construct homes for the less well-off while creating jobs.
Besides that, taxes on sales
(Turnover Tax) were tripled to 3% for small businesses, and income tax for
high-earning employees was raised from 30% to a maximum of 35%.
The government defends the new
taxes - now temporarily suspended by a court - as necessary because of the
country's high debts.
It accuses the previous
administration of massively adding to the country's debt burden by spending
huge amounts of money on infrastructure projects that did not help the ordinary
Kenyan.
Mr Ruto served in the previous
government as deputy president, but he distanced himself from it after falling
out with then-President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He and government officials
have told Kenyans that paying the taxes is a short-term "sacrifice"
for the future of the country.
But Mr Wainaina is not
convinced. Likewise, Edwin Simiyu, a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) rider in
Kiambu town near the capital regrets voting for the current administration.
"[The president] said we
should give him one year and then we'd see positive changes. Now when he is in,
he changes the tune and says we should wait for years before things become
better. We are suffering, we have been totally betrayed, we've been
forgotten," he says.
Charles Kaindo is hard at work
in the same town selling second-hand clothes on a pavement.
The hawker tells the BBC it is
unfortunate the government has broken its promises.
He says there will be a time
when people will say "enough is enough" - explaining that
hard-working people will turn to crime and others "may even take their
lives when the suffering becomes too much".
Charles Kaindo says the
government broke its promises
But not everyone thinks that
higher taxes are a bad thing.
Jane Njeri, an accountant in
the private sector, says she dies not envy the government - which needs the
money to pay off the huge debts that Kenya owes.
The Kenya shilling has been
steadily weakening against the US dollar in recent months, making the cost of
debt repayments even higher.
"It's not going to be an
overnight thing. We are at a bad place, depreciating shilling, debt and
unemployment," she says.
The disquiet in Kenya arises
from the "sense of contradiction" between the "hustler
narrative" about easing the cost of living that was sold during the
campaign and the "reality where we are seeing taxes being increased on
everyday goods", according to Ken Gichinga, chief economist at business
consulting firm Mentoria Economics.
He says rather than focusing
on consumption taxes that raise the cost of living, the government should do
more to spur private-sector growth.
He argues against the
government housing projects being funded by the new levy, saying it is unlikely
to resolve either the housing or unemployment problem.
"Lower interest rates,
lower taxation, and loosen regulation. Do those three and the whole economy
will be able to create jobs. Let the free market work."
However, economic analyst
Odhiambo Ramogi says he is convinced that that the president's intentions are
noble - though the methods "are wrong".
He says the government should
first cut waste before asking ordinary Kenyans to pay more.
The government accepts this
point - David Ndii, its chief economic adviser, has acknowledged on Twitter
that the government was "wasteful".
Ndindi Nyoro, chairman of the
parliamentary budget committee, told the BBC that the government's tax plan was
to ensure that government was not digging a bigger debt hole by borrowing more.
He said the focus was on creating a balance to ensure what "will make
Kenyans take part in baking the national cake".
But a growing number of
Kenyans do not think this is working and are taking to the streets to make
their point.
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