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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 21 September 2014

OVER TAXATION OF MOTORISTS IN UNCALLED FOR


First and foremost, I must appreciate conscious efforts by the ministry of Transport headed by Michael Kamau on road safety measures that have seen drastic reduction in road accidents. This commendable job by your ministry must be maintained at all costs to ensure that many lives are not lost.
Be it as it may be, at times, I get so much perturbed and concerned about the unfair treatment of our motorists who are striving to eke out a living in a decent manner as a panacea to reducing poverty, generating employment to millions of Kenyans and expanding the economic growth.
There is public outcry in the transport industry as motorists and the general public find it conspicuously unbearable to carry out the tax burden imposed on them as a result of high handedness of transport authority, the judiciary, the national police service (Traffic, and the Motor Vehicle Inspectorate Unit) all of which are characterised by doing a lot of injustice to the public and the motorists through levying of hefty taxation on traffic offenders.
In the same vein, the public views this as quadrupling the tax burden to the extent that they remain subjects of exploitation. A case in point can be summarised as follows: Advance tax - Sh10,080, booking for Inspection - Sh1,000, Speed Governor - Sh30,000, TLB - Sh3,250, unreceipted collection (bribe) - Sh3,000.
Worse still, the logic behind taking the number plates of impounded vehicles to Nairobi is another precarious avenue of depriving motorists of their  hard earned money as they have to spend more following up the matter to Nairobi. However, this uncalled for bureaucracy really undermines the essence of devolution of services.
Indeed, to salvage motorists from this quagmire, the decentralised KRA offices can be used as special points for deporting such number plates for ease of access by motorists,
Generally, the application of the principle of equity and equality in some areas (for example Nyanza) is so selective and varied that it begets massive marginalization in terms of economic benefits.
For instance, we have continuously witnessed unjustified road blocks on our roads and frequent inspection of motor vehicles which in some areas are not applicable.
Surprisingly, the 14- seater matatus  in western Kenya are not issued with TLB yet in other regions, they are licensed, what is the criteria being used to deny  other regions the right to own or to buy this vehicles?  
In view of the above, it is our humble prayer that the ministry discharge your mandate in accordance with the oath of office that you passionately took and more importantly that you will obey, respect and uphold the constitution of Kenya and all other Laws of the Republic of Kenya; further that you will well and truly serve the people and the Republic of Kenya and that you will undertake to hold your office with honor and dignity.
In the context of this, we hope that you are going to relieve the public and the motorists of these unnecessary burdens by bringing under one roof the entities dealing with motorists to lessen the tax burden and bring sanity in the transport industry.
We wish you well as you struggle to achieve this objective.
Audi Ogada
Chairman Kicirevo

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