
By Tabitha Marion
The government of the people for the people and by the people, that is democracy for us. While
on the other hand,a government that is accountable to itself, works for itself and only sees its
gain over the public's welfare is consumed in utter barbarism. That is the eventual death of
human empathy.
This is what Kenyans are trying to prevent. If we claim that we have not gone through tough
measures set by the government then we are truly wrong. We have been put to pass through
heavy tax burdens with no allowance to either accept or refuse. And to add pain in the wound,
these political leaders take to deceive our purported naive minds with promises that are not
becoming. Corruption and embezzlement of funds has just become a norm.
In our silence, we received the unexpected Finance Bill 2024. And there was the long awaited
trigger. Who owns this government? That was the question that first rang.
If this is the democratic government of the day then who does it work for?
The bill failed to address the public's needs and concerns. It only made suggestions that would
make the mwananchi's life harder than it is now. Where was the voice of the people in the bill if
truly we are in a democratic government. Kenyans spared their time to attend public
participations but, was the prospects the bill stated laid out to them?
Citizens raised their plight on their state of living during the public participations. They saw the
need to and expected to be heard by the leaders they democratically chose. They believed in
those leaders. They entrusted their welfare and lives on the very leaders who sat in Parliament to
pass that bill. Let it be known, that is an insult to the public.
Some parliamentarians took it to still lie to the people who voted them in. Some claimed to their
people that if the bill fails to pass then they would not have good roads and hospitals because
there would be no money to do that. For years Kenyans have been taxed but where are those
hospitals they talk about? Where are the good roads they want to construct now?
The bill the parliamentarians passed, contains provisions that will only lower the productivity of
Kenyans. It works to hamper progress made by hardworking Kenyans. The bill makes the cost of
accessing public and private goods and services nearly impossible. What are we expected to live
for if they take it all.
Heavy tax burdens with no effort made towards closing up revenue leakages through corruption,
mismanagement, wastage and illicit financial flows, would not solve anything. It would be
likened to filling up a damaged bucket with water, it never holds.
Saying it to the politicians, especially the Members of Parliament, that we want democracy
would be an utter waist of time. We took it to the roads because for long we have said that we
voted them in. It would only count if we now show them what they are supposed to do.
But if blood has to be shed, lives lost and Kenyans brutally treated by the police to proclaim that
we have been denied our rights, then, democracy is really on the verge of being forgotten like it
is not of importance.
For such a time as this, we cannot wait and hope. For help will rise from somewhere else and we
will be left to die.
Bloodshed has since been a norm especially when protests, demonstrations and pickets take the old way of sabotaging infrastructure.
Democracy is at an advanced stage in Kenya however, a single space of it without being guided by law enforcers has seen anarchy prevail. All in all, the finance bill went down as a result of miscommunication and lack of public participation not that it was punitive than the previous bills that since became law.