Country Stares at Joblessness as top Investors Flee Taxes

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Chrispen

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Monday, May 27, 2024 –Investment opportunities will be shrinking as top investors continue to flee the Kenyan market due to exploitation and frustrations.

Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers KAM, Anthony Mwangi, today, on Monday, May 27, announced that Kenya is going to face a difficult economic time because of the leadership mis-steps.

Foreign investors will be taking off one after another; what will lead to huge joblessness around the country.

Mr. Mwangi said this during an interview with Hot 96, where he clarified that this situation will be triggered by the Finance Bill 2024 which is extremely punitive.

“If you look at the export promotion and investment levy cumulatively, what the government has collected is what it used to collect from one company in a month. So you destroy a sector to collect peanuts,” the CEO stated this.

Kenyans to Suffer most

To add salt to injury, he noted that the situation will not only be affecting the investors but will hit down the ladder to the common consumer.

The new taxes, he argued, will make the cost of either importation and manufacturing go higher, hence high prices of commodities and what might, in return, lead to reduced sales and a subsequent reduction in job intake by companies in the local market.

“When you come here as an investor you are taken in rounds with some officials asking for some token. These global investors have no appetite for some of these investment destinations that operate like that,” he remarked.

In the Bill, the CEO realised that there are many grey areas which, if not corrected this early before being enacted, will automatically increase unemployment rates.

Economist and finance pundits have, of late, taken issue with the Finance Bill as it is saying it is punitive and would bring with it negative results.

Finance Budget Committee

Finance and Budget Committee Chairman Ndindi Nyoro was recently captured on Tv addressing the issue. He assured members of the public that the Bill will be brought to the people first for deliberations before it is passed in Parliament.

On his part, President Ruto has repeatedly said that for Kenya to be a self-sufficient nation, he will have to increase local tax collection percentage to 22 from the current 14.

He has vowed, not once, that, he will not preside over a broke government that is full of debts that have to be serviced.