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Friday, April 04, 2008

Kenya's New Cabinet is neither Lean nor Clean...

(Huge) Sigh... the 40 ministers is NOT a LEAN cabinet... maybe (just painfully laughing myself to sleep) it will be clean...

Put in perspective... I estimate KShs 4bn will be needed to fund the lifestyles & salaries of 1 prez, 1 VP, 1 PM, 2 deputy PMs, 40 ministers, 80 asst ministers and all the razzmatazz (chase cars, houses, allowances, travel, security) that goes with their positions...

The sale of 25% of Safaricom will raise KShs 50-55bn... If the money was invested in 1 yr T-Bills the interest (8%) would just cover the above costs!!! No wonder there are no more complaints from either party about selling Safaricom's shares!

In the meantime, Kenyans pay:
  • 50%+ in taxes on petrol while the oil companies (8% percent gross margin) are blamed
  • relatively high income (25-33%) taxes on low thresholds while MPs pay almost nothing
  • 26% in taxes on airtime while MPs get 'free' airtime allowances
  • high duties & taxes (approaching 100%) on cars while MPs get cars duty free
  • taxes on benefits like housing & car allowances while MPs pay nothing
The MPs, prez & VP, PM & deputies are EXEMPT from many of these taxes!

For all the posturing... is there a LEADER among the elected politicians?

Sigh... I have said many times, we are cursed. We need a Guy Fawkes. We need a Lee Kuan Yew. We need LEADERS.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Coldtusker for President!!!

bankelele said...

It's starting to worry me. Like sports fans who enjoy a thrilling match then go back to discover their lives have not changed at all and and get depressed (and violent), the political theatre has come to an end for an electorate only for them to find petrol prices at almost 100/= a litre $6/gallon) and food prices up 50%. It will not be politics as usual for the new cabinet!