On Saturday, November, Kenyan newspapers reported extensively on the fall following the Kenya Catholic Bishops' Conference (KCCB) fierce attacks against the First President's administration William Ruto of Kenya.
Source: UGC
1. The Saturday Standard
The publication reported that the leader of the Resolution Raila Odinga he returned to local politics and strongly attacked parliamentarians and government officials whom he accused of working to kill devolution.
Raila, who was supposed to take a break from domestic politics to seek continental prominence as chairman of the African Union Commission (AUC), led by the government, claimed that devolution was under attack.
He claimed there were attempts to revive regional administration to replace county governments.
Speaking to reporters in his Capitol Hill office six days after the launch of his AUC chairmanship campaign in Addis Ababa, Raila said the ongoing impasse between the National Assembly and the Senate over the Income Distribution Amendment Bill is “about power grabs. “
Raila explained that this was an attack on the Constitution by the MPs and he called the action as “brutal betrayal of the people and the reform of the structure of our administration.”
“There are people who do not believe in devolution, people who prefer a unitary government system. They think governors are an unnecessary burden. There are attempts to revive the state administration which, according to the Constitution, should have been replaced by county governments,” Raila said.
The former Prime Minister added, “Decentralization is threatened, and we who fought for it must stand up and be counted to defend it.”
2. Saturday Nation
According to the newspaper, MPs are in a dilemma over whether to support new tax proposals aimed at helping the cash-strapped government raise more money.
The lawmakers on Thursday were urged to ensure public support for at least five tax-related Bills that the government intends to pass.
In an informal meeting (Kamukunji) held in the Parliament Buildings from 11 am, the MPs were given a 16-page summary of the new tax that the government plans to introduce.
Many interviews with the legislators revealed that the legislators came together to support the new proposals and break the concepts to their constituents once the period of public participation begins.
The move, according to the MPs, is to avoid disputes and opposition from the people, as was witnessed during the Finance Bill, 2024, which was passed by Parliament but was rejected by President William Ruto following protest fierce against the government led by the Parliament. young people.
According to sources, the executive, this time, wants to change the direction and ensure that the members of parliament are given full information and balanced before the Bills continue with public participation.
The point is that if MPs support and defend awareness initiatives on new taxes, the Bills are likely to face less opposition compared to leaving communication to the government alone.
“Basically, they are trying to resubmit the 2024 Finance Bill that was rejected, through various Bills, and they wanted us to understand it before public participation,” said the ODM MP of the second phase.
Among the Bills sent by the Attorney General's Office and the National Treasury for consideration by the Finance and Planning Committee led by Molo Member of Parliament, Kimani Kuria include the Taxation (Amendment) Bill of 2024, and the (Amendment) Bill ) of Tax Laws, 2024. .
Others include the Public Finance Management Bill (Amendment) No. 3, 2024, the Public Finance Management Bill (Amendment) No. 4, 2024, and the Financial Institutions Law Amendment Bill of the Year 2024.
Among the new taxes introduced by the Bills are proposals to expand the digital tax to include air travel services, food delivery services, independent services and professional services.
If passed, those who earn income in these categories will be taxed under digital business income. The bills also impose taxes on non-residents who earn income through digital businesses in the country.
Mukurweini MP John Kaguchia said he would oppose the new tax, noting that more discussions about the proposals should have been done before they were published.
“Since this was not done, I would ask the Committee on Finance and National Planning to remove these proposals from Parliament and resubmit them after proper consultation,” Kaguchia said.
Kaguchia questioned the reasons for increasing the railway development fee and taxing transformers and electrical parts.
3. Nation Today
Kiswahili newspaper reported that two human rights organizations have criticized Safaricom for allegedly cooperating with security officials by sharing customer data.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the Muslims of Human Ri
ghts (Seal) has written to Fred Waithaka, Safaricom's Head of Public Policy and Governance.
The report alleged that Safaricom has been providing customer information to the police, who have been accused of using illegal tactics such as extrajudicial killings and kidnappings in their operations.
The groups expressed their concern about this collaboration, stressing that the police who rely on such data often have a history of violating human rights. They called on Safaricom to adhere to ethical and legal standards in protecting the privacy of its customers.
These claims have sparked a wider debate about the role of telecommunications companies in protecting the human rights and privacy of their users, especially in an environment where security agencies have a record of rights violations.
4. The Star
The newspaper reported that an investigation by the University of Nairobi has shown that some of the chicken meat sold in Nairobi contains bacteria that are resistant to very important antibiotics.
The prevalence of multidrug-resistant Ecoli in Nairobi chicken meat may pose a risk to human health due to consumption of undercooked meat or unsanitary handling of infected chicken.
E.coli lives in the intestines of people and animals but can cause a variety of illnesses, including pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and diarrhea when ingested.
Tino Deng, from the UoN Department of Veterinary Pathology, and his colleagues said they tested chicken meat from three different sources: sick birds from a veterinary clinic, farm chickens, and chickens from a Nairobi chicken market.
They took swabs from the carcasses and tested them for E. coli, with subsequent tests assessing the bacteria's resistance to eight commonly used antibiotics: ampicillin, tetracycline, co-trimoxazole, streptomycin, nalidixic acid, amoxicillin, gentamicin, and chloramphenicol. .
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Source: TUKO.co.ke
