The Clerk

The National Assembly

Republic of Kenya

RE: Petition Of Freekenya Movement Initiative On The Finance Bill Calling On Parliament To Abolish Taxation On Basic And Essential Goods And Services

WE, the undersigned, mobilized through the FreeKenya Movement Initiative through our online Petition page on change.org and being Citizens of the Republic of Kenya, and aware of our rights under the Constitution and as per the Petition to Parliament (Procedure) Act 2012, bring forth this petition to this honourable August House of the National Assembly.

Draw the attention of the House to the following:

1. THAT the people of Kenya have become severely affected by the recent increase in the prices of food and basic commodities such as maize flour, wheat flour, cooking oil, cooking gas, milk, bread, sugar, petrol, diesel, kerosene.

2. THAT these increases in the prices of food and basic commodities threaten the people of Kenya with hunger and starvation, Food Insecurity and economic instability.

3. THAT these are matters in purview of Article 43 of the Constitution

4. THAT the implementation of this Article has not been very clear and the National Assembly can make headway with this Article by abolishing of taxation on basic and essential commodities which shall allow Kenyans to have resources available to them to pursue the fulfilment of some of the items under this Article.

5. THAT if the National Assembly abolishes taxation on basic and essential commodities, it will help Kenyans in their home-based budgets and grow the economy. 

6. THAT the following items be considered as basic and essential and therefore the action of abolishing of taxation can be done upon these items.

I) Petrol, Kerosene and Diesel including excise duty, VAT and all levies etc.

II) LPG Gas and usage of LPG (cooking and other usages including transport)

III) All forms of taxation on domestic production of water

IV) All forms of Wheat Meal and wheat-based items

V) All forms of Maize Meal and maize based items

VI) All forms of locally produced rice and rice-based items

VII) All home use Milk and Milk based items

VIII) All Sanitary Towels and Sanitary Items

IX) Electricity and Generation of Electricity

X)  All Cooking Oils

XI) All essential medicines, medical services and medical items

XII) All School based books and school use items including uniforms, sets, pens, pencils, rulers, computers and laptops.

XIII) All electronic communication such as airtime and internet

XIV) All locally manufactured and locally available building materials 

XV) All form of essential agricultural inputs of production

7. THAT upon zero rating this 15 Items, the following situation shall obtain

a) High Cost of living will drastically drop

b) The exiting factories and industries will in the next 2-6 months begin to hire unemployed Kenyans as their production cost will drop and production will increase dramatically, adding back to the taxation collection 

c) In the coming months and few years NEW industries will take residence in Kenya and boost employment and local economies.  

d) There will be one of a kind economic inclusion in the economic grassroots as the elevated purchasing power at this level will allow people to purchase informal street products like roasted maize, mutura, fruits, fish, and promoting these informal traders and bringing them to the tax column eventually, especially with specific government driven incentives.

ENFORCEMENT

e) The government should create a categorization of the millions of items of trade from normal essential, extra normal, pre-luxury, deluxe & luxury

f) Parliament should enable a temporary commission, bureau, or board to generate a catalogue of these millions of items.

WHEREFORE, your humble Petitioners PRAY that the National Assembly Hears and considers this petition urgently and Initiates legislation in the taxation policies to remove taxation on basic and essential commodities captured in the list above to help bring down cost of living, and ensure better livelihoods.

Sign this petition to get your respective Member of Parliament to reject the aforementioned punitive tax proposals in the Financial Bill 2023.

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