Nairobi community voices on the Finance Bill 2023 and 2023/24 national budget.

BY TORIS JOHN

ActionAid International Kenya is un-apologetic in advancing women’s rights and ensuring that women living in poverty and exclusion are at the center of our work in Kenya.

Therefore working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. We commit to working with Women, Children and Youth to claim and realize their constitutional rights through working within three main pillars; empowerment, solidarity and campaigning.

The Finance Bill 2023, which is set for the committee of the whole house stage, have proposals that crosscut several sectors of the economy and therefore are bound to affect the operation of different sectors of the economy. Here are the highlights of our key takeaways from our today’s townhall meeting;

1: The government has not highlighted inclusivity of persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the housing project.

2: The proposed taxes on the importation of machinery for recycling plants should not be adopted.

3: The government to address issues of corruption and wastage in government.

4: The taxes on imported cement should not be uniform. Affordability of basic (food) commodity should be addressed through incentivizing farm input. The tax on fuel should not be 16%.

In conclusion, tax on vaccine and malaria kit should be dropped. The above statement is undersigned by community members from Nairobi as signed in the attached list.