KENYA FINANCE BILL 2024
KENYA FINANCE BILL 2024
The months of June and July were rather eventful ones for the Kenyan people. Almost everyone in the country was on stimulated and people's hearts were filled with rage. There were demonstrations all over the country with young people on the streets demonstrating and fighting against a government that they felt was not ideal to be ruling them.
All this was fuelled by the Finance bill that was released by the government on how they were planning to run the new financial year. The bill did not sit right as it imposed so many taxes on things such as fuel, importation and last but not least and absurd BREAD!
These series of demonstrations led to the president of the republic holding an interview with three journalists from the biggest media houses in the country. This interview was an interview that will always go down in history. People naturally expect that the president addressing the nation would cool down issues well this interview fuelled the anger of the people. You may wonder why, well it was a series of faults such as him not been able to answer some of the questions being asked by those sharpened journalist to even denying truth that were captured on videos and even recordings. Shocking, right?
Just like majority of Kenyans, I also felt disappointed by that interview, however, I saw a different perspective of the interview also. Even as I type this I shiver a bit as I know this opinion that I hold on the interview is very controversial as it goes against what majority of the Kenyans agree with. However, I will try and persuade to seeing my view as an acceptable one.
When I began watching the interview I first decided to remove any prior feelings towards the president and listen from a non bias perspective. A step I believe many Kenyans skipped and just began watching the interview with the anger the had in the streets prior to watching the head of states speech. Second, Kenyans were very quick to call out the presidents body language stating that they could read them and they symbolised a liar (I am not discrediting that they may truly have the ability to read body language). However, I will rebut this claim by the simple question of, if you personally were interviewed by 3 well sharpened journalists who clearly were 'out to get you' (I quote because I am not sure and I am open to correction) you would also shrug in your seat and lick your lips because it is basically 3 against 1, wouldnt you?
Thirdly and my major argument is that I believe I can say that majority of the Kenyans had not read the entire bill before making the conclusions they made. Many were on the streets demonstrating (which is not wrong as it is their democratic right) with just brief details on the bill from maybe instagram and Tiktok videos. I was also part of that group but after listening to the presidents speech where he talked about the bill in some depth I realised we were not aware of the positive parts of the bill that were intended to grow the countrys economy and we were quick to say that we should trash the whole bill. An example of a positive part of the bill is that the government wanted us to stop importing foreign indusrty sanitary towels and purchasing from within our countrys industries to retain the money we spend outside within. I will not go into detail on every positive aspect we missed to encourage you to go and read or read the bill yet to be passed.
I am not saying the bill was entirely good but I stand for the bill not being entirely trashed but instead the beneficial parts being retained and the negative parts being discarded. I hope I have persuaded you to change your mind a bit on the issue if not entirely. All in all lets remember, 'Kenya ni moja na yetu sisi sote'
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