A section of Kenyans feels the Ksh3.6 trillion budget unveiled by the Kenya Kwanza administration last month is meant to facilitate massive graft in government, a new report by Trends and Insights Africa Research (TIFA) shows.
The survey conducted between June 23 and June 30, 2023, shows that 54% of Kenyans believe that they will not get a house despite being compelled to pay a 1.5% housing levy.
The taxpayers believe that the amount will be lost to corruption as opposed to being used for the intended purpose.
The information was derived from the responses of 1,500 respondents through Computer Assisted Telephonic Interviews (CATI).
Of the respondents who were asked to give their opinion regarding the housing levy, only 11% believe that they will indeed get a house from the government housing project, which is set to be funded by the housing levy.
To identify the number of people that are in support of the housing levy, TIFA also did a survey to see the level of support the levy has.
The results indicate that 69% do not support the housing levy and only 24% in support of the levy.
24% of the individuals polled were against the doubling of Valued Added Tax (VAT) from 8% to 16% with a majority opining that their taxes would be misappropriated.
The 2023-2024 financial year budget was read by National Treasury & Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u on June 15.
President William Ruto announced that his government would not resort to borrowing but would fund the budget through tax collection to harness more revenue.
Mistrust of government
The concerns by Kenyans could be attributed to numerous suspicious transactions that have been brought to light by whistleblowers, including the alleged oil importation scandal that falls under the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industrialization.
It’s alleged that private firms were single-sourced to procure Ksh6 billion worth of oil on behalf of the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC). Interestingly, the oil ended up being more expensive than what was available in the country.
The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) scandal where private hospitals in cahoots with NHIF officials robbed Kenyans through inflation of bills, is also among the recent corruption scandals that shook Kenyans.
