What Amos Kimunya did not tell you about the budget

The Kenyan government, like most governments around the world, is well versed in the art of deploying and utilising smokescreens. As the name implies the purpose of the smokescreen is to hide something from view or atleast divert attention away from an issue or subject that the government would rather was not noticed, leave alone discussed or debated at all. These smokescreens come in various forms but they all share some of the same characteristics.

For example the smokescreens usually contain something completely ridiculous which leads us to wonder what planet members of our government come from. This was the favoured tactic of the Moi regime. Here is an example. Did you notice how when there was a negative and potential very damaging story about the government dominating the news agenda one of Moi’s ministers would stand up and give a speech in which he would make some ridiculous claim? My favourite one was that Kenya was about to bid to host the Olympics. Predictably we would all get outraged and froth at the mouth and spend the next month partaking in debates with our friends and colleagues, remarking to each other that there are other priorities for the government to focus on, we would chuckle at the idea of the creaking Kenyan infrastructure being asked to host such a large event, and we would write articles to display our intellectual fortitude informing the minister that Olympics are hosted by CITIES not COUNTRIES so Kenya could not bid for the Olympics but Nairobi could. Of course by the time we had exhausted all this energy we would have forgotten what issue we were discussing before the minister made his ridiculous statement. And as we laughed all the way to our bars and coffee shops content that we were smarter than our ministers, our self proclaimed Professor of Politics was laughing at our constant ability to be played.

More recently we have seen another smokescreen deployed occasionally. When difficult questions started surfacing about what we now call “Anglo-Leasing type contracts” the First Lady would go out and do something totally ridiculous, such as raid a private party at the World Bank country director’s house in her pyjamas. When the questions about corruption would not stop the First Lady would either storm a police station and demand the cops arrest somebody or storm a media house by herself in the dead of the night and proceed to slap reporters – an act that is 110% guaranteed to dominate the media’s new agenda. Where was Kibaki, we would ask, why didn’t State House intervene when the First Lady’s security detail first reported her irrational and illegal actions?

Well maybe State House did not intervene because they had just deployed their smokescreen. And soon afterwards whispers about medication being deliberately withheld from the First Lady to ensure her irrational behaviour continues started to surface. These days whenever the First Lady does something outrageous I check the newspapers from the previous week to try and figure out what they are trying to hide.

In June 2008 we have been thrown yet another smokescreen, this time by the Minister of Finance, Amos Kimunya. This smokescreen, brilliant deployed it must be said, centres around Budget and the issue of whether Members’ of Parliament should pay tax on their salaries and allowances. Of course they should. That is obvious and indeed it is ridiculous that in 2008 we can still debate this. Of course Members’ of Parliament should pay tax on their salaries and allowances. Predictably many MPs are resisting all attempts to pay tax and that is the debate that has dominated the Kenyan news agenda in the past couple of weeks.

This debate about MPs and taxation is a smokescreen which Mwalimu Mati the CEO of MARS Group Kenya has exposed with his usually thoroughness. If MPs paid tax the Treasury would save between Ksh. 600 million and Ksh. 700 million. That is good money. However, Kimunya’s latest budget is full of waste, which runs into the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of shillings. And that is even better money. And all this is probably going to pass unscrutinzed by a parliament full of MPS whose only point of concern in this Budget is whether or not they are to be taxed.

Please download [pdf 48 kb] , read, blog and circulate widely Mati’s article. You can download [pdf 48kb] it here.

Some shocking statistcs:

1. Last year the Government of Kenya budget for entertainment of its guests amounted to Ksh 5.7 million per day for EVERY day of the year.
2. The Governemnet of Kenya spends Ksh 3.995 billion on rents per annum and only receives Ksh 239.368 million per year from property income and rent.
3. Last year, the Government of Kenya spent over Ksh 6.7 million per day every day of the year on foreign travel. This is set to increase in this budget.
4. Did you know that State House Nairobi has 149 cars? Did you know that this year Minister of Finance wants to buy Ksh 73 million more worth of cars for State House? Did you know that last year a similar amount of money was spent on cars at State House? Did you know that the Government budget for cars for 2008 has gone up by 1 billion shillings, even as public attention is consumed by the debate on MP’s allowances?

And the best one

5. Every year the Minister of Finance presents lump sum budgets for the National Security Intelligence Services, the Armed Forces and the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission. This year their collective budgets will pass the Ksh 47 billion mark – and yet they will be no debate on the budget items in them because the Minister of Finance has helpfully provided none.

Ksh. 47 BILLION!

Kenyans let us demand that our MPs accept that they have a duty to pay taxes but let us not allow this debate on MPs allowances to distract us from the bigger picture. Do not be fooled by the smokescreen! Demand equally that your MP take his or her constitutional responsibility seriously and scrutinise Amos Kimunya’s ridiculous Budget.

Please download [pdf 48 kbs], read, blog, and circulate widely Mati’s article. You can download it here [pdf 48kb].