November 24, 2008

Hon. Mwai Kibaki,

Party Leader PNU and President of the Republic of Kenya,

Hon. Raila Odinga,

Party Leader ODM and Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya

Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka

Party Leader ODM-K and Vice President of the Republic of Kenya

Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta,

Party Chairman KANU and Deputy Prime Minister

Hon. Martha Karua,

Party Chairman Narc Kenya and Minister for J,NC&CA

Hon. Paul Kibugi Muite,

Party Leader Safina Party,

Hon. John Michuki,

Ag. Minister for Finance of the Republic of Kenya.

Dear Sirs and Madam,

YOUR POLITICAL PARTIES MUST ENSURE THAT MPs PAY TAXES

NCEC wishes to address you as Party leaders.

Hon. Muthama wrote a letter to the clerk of the National Assembly urging him to see to it that his salary is taxed. NCEC is not fooled by that gesture since we all know that to tax anyone the Minister needs a legal basis for such fiscal step. Mr. Muthama who is the Chief Whip of ODM-K should have consulted his party leader, The Vice President Hon. Musyoka to present a party position in Parliament on behalf of his Party.

Hon. Raila has since belatedly commented on the need for MPs to pay taxes. The Prime Ministers has not convened his Party to instruct the ODM MPs to pass the bill empowering Minister Michuki to tax MPs, Judges and other constitutional office holders. NCEC is disappointed at this rogue conduct of MPs and the clear endorsement of this greed by you Hon. Prime Minister.

Your Excellency the President; why have allowed these MPs to visit this ignominy on our country? The other month when Hon. Uhuru was about to be discussed in Parliament regarding his alleged illegal nomination of Councillors, we saw you take steps to consolidate PNU to support Hon. Uhuru to ensure he was not censured by Parliament. It is utterly shocking that you have not called PNU MPs to a meeting to instruct them to follow the Party line? Or is the PNU Party line reading that MPs Must not pay taxes?

Hon. Martha Karua, Narc Kenya has just elected you their chairman and gave you their confidence. We have not seen you rally the Party to lead the country in demanding that MPs must pay taxes. Moreover as the Deputy leader of government Business, what have you done on this matter?

Hon. Muite, we have heard you say clearly that Safina supports the policy of government to tax MPs, what have you told your Safina MPs in Parliament to do?

Finally, Hon. Michuki, Why did you hold that premature Kamukunji where MPs “arm-twisted you” to drop the clauses authorizing you as the Minister for Finance to tax them? Why have you not sought out Party leaders to ensure that MPs support the Parties’ line of their leaders?

NCEC demands that you table the Bill with the clauses empowering you to tax MPs as a sign of good faith. We as Kenyans can suffer one more week of lack of funding if the MPs shoot down the Bill. We know the consequences and we are ready to stand for what is right until the MPs yield to the demands of the people of Kenya.

Course of action

NCEC shall continue to mobilize Kenyan tax payers to put pressure on each individual MP to support the Bill authorizing the Ministry of Finance to tax MPs and all constitutional office holders immediately. We shall be activating various actions of mass action until the government accedes to our demand to tax MPs.

We shall take both political and legal steps to compel the MPs of the 10th Parliament to pass the proposed Bill into law.

NCEC shall continue to call on yours Sirs and Madam to convene your Party NECs to outline the Party lines as regards the MPs passing the Bills to ensure that they begin to pay the much needed taxes “to make our country independent” as KRA so rightly advises.

On behalf of the National Convention Executive Council

Signed
Cyprian Orina-Nyamwamu
CEO, NCEC
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Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:07:45 -0800 [11/24/2008 08:07:45 AM CST]
From: orina Nyamwamu
Subject: NCEC PETITION TO KIBAKI, RAILA, KALONZO, KARUA- MPS MUST PAY TAXES