Kenyan Members of Parliament on Tuesday, December 22 voted to end tax cuts, a move earlier established to support citizens cope with the impact of the pandemic. The measures included reduction of income tax, value-added tax and corporate tax by between 2 per cent and 5 per cent. The plan was to help ordinary Kenyans and businesses from the pandemic which greatly affected the tourism and agriculture sectors. However, MPs argued that the relief was unsustainable a few days after the country’s Minister of Finance announced that Kenya had counted losses worth $600m in revenue tax since the tax breaks were established. Local media reports indicate that the move has ‘astounded’ and angered Kenyans who, among others, say that the pandemic has ravaged the economy with millions of people losing their jobs and business being forced to shut permanently. Meanwhile, the country is also facing a growing health challenge owing to the spike of Covid-19 cases registered in the country. So far, Kenya has registered 94,768 Covid-19 cases of whom 1647 patients have succumbed to the virus.
