A loyal confidant of President William Ruto has vomited on Kenyans complaining about the introduction of the Motor Vehicle Tax.
According to the Finance Bill 2024 proposed by the Treasury, Kenyans owning vehicles will be required to pay 2.5 percent of the value of their car as motor vehicle tax beginning from July 1 this year.
Kuria Kimani, the MP for Molo Constituency and chair of the National Assembly Finance Committee, described the levy as “a hybrid of income and wealth tax” on Tuesday and said the move is meant to encourage investment in what he described as an elaborate local public transport system.
“If you go to economies ahead of us, there are elaborate and very efficient public transport systems,” the MP told NTV in an interview.
“Every time investors want to invest in our public transport system through public-private partnerships, the feasibility studies show that we like to drive our cars so much that we are not able to attract foreign investment.”
He argued that Kenyans like using cars because the public transport system is not “elaborate” and if Kenyans were to be presented with a better alternative, they would avoid using cars.
And while the motor vehicle circulation tax will be tied to the annual renewal of insurance policies, Kimani claims Kenyans have an option of not paying it – by not using their cars altogether.
“If you don’t want to pay the motor vehicle circulation tax, then don’t use the car, like how you don’t use the expressway if you don’t want to pay for it,” he said.
