The Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) has decried the additional taxation imposed by the government and a cut in universities’ funding encapsulated in the Finance Act 2018. Speaking to the press in Nairobi, KUSU Secretary General Charles Mukhwaya protested the 1.5 % tax on employees’ monthly gross emoluments set to go to the National Housing Development Fund, “We oppose this tax being pushed down Kenya’s workers throats because it smacks of double taxation since Kenyans already pay Income Tax and Value Added Tax on virtually all products and services,” he said.
Mukhwaya outlined that there was neither public participation carried nor stakeholders consultation as is envisaged by the law in the nascent stages of coming up with the tax, “This lends credence to those who have said that the levy is part of government machinations to strangulate an already emaciated poor worker and hand over the money to the corrupt,” he said.
The KUSU Secretary General further decried the cut in varsity funding in the Finance Act 2018, saying the government has cut capitation to universities by Kshs 1 billion as part of austerity measures. He said this move by the government will cripple Kenya’s Vision 2030, “The human resources intended to drive the Vision are trained by universities that are now limping due to the reduction of funding and government’s ever-shrinking funds to the universities,” he said. He said the government should rethink university education in alignment with the President’s Big Four Agenda and Vision 2030.
