The sharp rise in the cost of fuel following the government’s imposition of a 16 per cent tax caused uproar across the country last week. News on all media platforms carried the outrage of Kenyans, who are already among the most heavily taxed people on Earth – yet they have to pay for services by private providers. The newspaper headlines on September 3 captured the mood of an angry nation:
“Kenyans resist high cost of fuel” (Standard)
“Crushing taxes spark off protests” (Star)
“Fuel hike: Pressure mounts on Uhuru” (People)
The mystics on Kimathi Street – who invented “journalism of the future” the other week – still kept their gaze on the crystal ball. They revealed: “Uhuru to stop fuel cost rise, says Raila” (Daily Nation). That remains to be seen.
Editorialists pulled no punches.
Star: “The 16 per cent VAT will only make a bad situation worse with the resulting transport and production costs passed on to the already overburdened citizens. Such a heavy tax load, and more so if it does not match the services provided, are recipes for revolutions.”
It must be the first time the dreaded word “revolution” has appeared in the mainstream press in recent times.
Standard: “Whereas the government argues the new levy is ostensibly to allow it to access a Sh150 billion facility to cushion the shilling from market fluctuations, economic experts say the tax is meant to plug a growing budget deficit, 9 per cent this year. This thanks to Jubilee’s borrowing frenzy, runaway corruption and wastage in public services; made worse by a weak taxation regime and government profligacy.”
And TV reporters on all stations spoke about Kenyans “digging deeper into their pockets” to meet the high cost of living. The Observer requests the inventor of that cliché so loved by Kenyan journalists to come take it to another country, say the Republic of Turkmenistan. Our pockets are now fully dug through.
On social media, commentators predictably went for each other’s throat. You elected this government, why are you complaining, oppositionists taunted. How would it have been any different, government supporters countered? And this is just putting it very mildly. Ethical scruples prohibit the Observer from reproducing the raw hate spewed online.
The chattering classes went for their usual punching bag – the middle class. A post by one Philip Ochieng’ was shared widely on social media platforms. He said the government should not stop at increasing fuel tax. It should raise taxes on everything.
“How else would the stubborn middle class understand that it is catastrophic to ignore matters of national concern and remain aloof when the semi-literate elected representatives from county assemblies and Parliament are the ones allowed to legislate our lives into oblivion?” he posed.
The narrative about political aloofness of the middle class has been around for a while. But is it correct that Kenyans are represented in the county assemblies and Parliament by semi-literates? And – more to the point – is this the cause of the country’s problems like high taxes and bad services? Of course not. Parliament has some of the best-Kenyans. Go read their profiles.
As a matter of fact, Kenya has a tiny middle class that is politically inconsequential. The bulk of the population is comprised of individuals who can hardly be described as middle class by whatever criteria.
Assuming elections are ever free and fair to begin with, the millions of voters who determine the outcome are impoverished citizens who see elections as a tribal war and are willing to cast their ballot for the candidate who gives them Sh100 or even less.
What might the middle class do about this? Paradoxically, a lot. But the group lacks class consciousness and ideological coherence. You know this to be the case when Kenya’s workers – those in formal employment – are led by one Francis Atwoli. Dr Mukhisa Kituyi once made a startling discovery. He informed the republic that Atwoli has nothing between his ears.
But our problem is far bigger than the bemoaned impotence of the middle class. The national project is dead. It is everyone for themselves. We could remove all the current crop of leaders and replace them with others. But that would not necessarily give us a better nation.
“The national project in Africa has been defeated while the imperial project is being rehabilitated under such spurious labels as globalisation, liberalisation, marketization and privatisation. The compradorial classes are in control of the state, or whatever remains of it after being stripped by the [international financial institutions] and donor agencies,” writes Tanzanian pan-Africanist scholar Issa Shivji.
“Our politics are fast degenerating into unmasked power mongering, covered up by paper-thin and reactionary ideologies of race, ethnicity and other prejudices. As the national resources of the continent are auctioned off, not even to the highest bidder but to the giver of the highest kickback, our people continue to wallow in poverty.”
That is what the fuel taxes – and other burdens endured by Kenyans – are about.
As the Star editorial noted, these are the sorts of situations that provoke revolutions.
