By Njonjo Mue
What you need to know:
- The deadline for paying income tax for the year ended 31 December 2020 is midnight tomorrow, 30th April 2021
- Njonjo Mue has written to President Uhuru Kenyatta notifying him of his decision not to pay income tax due from him to KRA and enumerating the reasons therefor.
- Mue outlines three conditions that the President must fulfill before the said tax can be transferred from a trust account to KRA
Njonjo Mue
Landless Estate
Thika
29 April 2021
H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta
President of the Republic of Kenya
State House
Nairobi
Dear Mr. President,
RE: WE SHALL NO LONGER PAY TAXES TO YOUR GOVERNMENT, UNLESS…
I am a Kenyan citizen and resident taxpayer who, alongside forty-eight
million of my fellow citizens, has watched with utter dismay and increasing frustration as your government has run the affairs of our land with criminal negligence thereby placing in great jeopardy not just our present fortunes but our children’s future.
The problems facing our country under your government are legion. They are widely documented and well known to you, and so I will not rehash them here. Suffice it to state that under your watch, our economy is at an advanced stage of collapse, a state of affairs that is attributable to and exacerbated by the ballooning public debt and runaway official corruption.
Mr. President, just like in a marriage, there comes a time that the relationship between the rulers of a country and the people they govern becomes irretrievably broken down. When this happens, the people no longer owe the rulers the duty to obey them or continue to confer legitimacy upon a government that has clearly demonstrated its unwillingness or inability to steward wisely the affairs of their country for the welfare of society and the just government of the people.
The relationship between your government and We the People became irretrievably broken down when it became clear that your government is just a sophisticated arrangement to enable the few to steal and enjoy the plenty within our borders while the vast majority of our people barely have anything to eat. It became problematic for We the People to continue to cooperate with our own oppression when you continued to demonstrate that the only reason for your government to exist was to cleverly invent new ways in which to take necessities from the masses in order to give luxuries to the classes.
A newspaper picture of me facing a fully armed squad of GSU shortly before they violently broke up our 'No reforms, no elections' rally at Central Park in May 1997. This was one of the mass action events leading up to Nane nane. @nisisikenya #tekelezakatiba pic.twitter.com/lQDRbo4wyc
— njonjomue (@njonjomue) July 31, 2020
It became untenable when you decided to mortgage our children’s future by going on a reckless borrowing spree, which has led to a ballooning national debt of KSh. 7 trillion and counting. This has been compounded by runaway corruption through which, according to your own public admission recently, our country loses KSh. 2 billion daily to corruption under your watch.
Mr. President, there comes a time when a government so mismanages the affairs of its people that silence from the people becomes betrayal and inaction amounts to treason. What shall we tell our children if we keep silent and fail to act at such a time as this to stop the reckless plunder of our country?
We must speak out and we must act to save our beloved country from the existential threat posed to it by your government and to preserve it for future generations. We urgently need to have a comprehensive and genuine national conversation as to how to save the land of our fathers’ and mothers’ dreams from imminent collapse (please note that by a national conversation, I do not refer to the political con game called the BBI or the meaningless fights between different factions of the political divide as they cast lots to determine how to divide among themselves the garment that covers our country’s nakedness and how to divide our public resources among themselves come August 2022).
Even as we prepare to convene that national conversation, it barely needs stating, Mr. President, that to continue paying taxes to a government whose Chief Executive openly admits that KShs. 2 billion of our hard-earned taxes gets stolen on a daily basis on his watch would be to abet in this grand theft of scarce public resources. We cannot in good conscience continue paying our hard-earned money into your treasury for thieves to steal at will and politicians to plunder at whim.
In view of the foregoing, Mr. President, I now write to notify you as follows:
- That since I earned my first salary up until the present day, I have been a law-abiding and faithful taxpayer; the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes can confirm that;
- That as a consultant, my total earnings for the year ended 31 December 2020 were KSh. 645,000
- That the tax payable on this amount after withholding tax is KSh, 32,126. Please find attached the KRA payment slip for the said tax reference number 2020210001141033 dated 22nd April 2021;
- That according the Income Tax Act the deadline for paying income tax to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is midnight tomorrow, 30 April 2021;
- That, however, and in view of the foregoing reasons, I shall NOT be paying the said tax to KRA;
- That instead I have opened the following dedicated bank account in which I have deposited the said tax amount of KSh. 32,126 to be held in trust for the people of Kenya unless and until you fulfill the conditions listed in No. 8 below. The account details are as follows:
Account Name: James Njonjo Mue
Account Number: 1284856666
Bank: Kenya Commercial Bank
Branch: Thika Branch
Address: Corner Uhuru Street / Kenyatta Highway
Opposite Christina Wangari Gardens
Thika
- That this money and any other taxes that may become due from me shall remain in the said account until you demonstrate that you and your government are serious about leading a genuine national conversation about the myriad existential problems created by and/or facing your administration;
It's at the National Assembly . We passed it . The section outlawing the flying of flags is archaic
— Mutula KilonzoJR CBS (@GvnMutula) June 29, 2018
- That to demonstrate your ability and willingness to start addressing in hood faith the existential threats to which your poor leadership has exposed our country, which will, in turn, persuade us to release the tax money held in the trust account to KRA, we demand that you take the following steps within the stated timelines:
- Within 7 days of the date hereof, you make public the details of the contract between the Government of Kenya and the People’s Republic of China for the construction and operation of the Standard Gauge Railway;
- Within 7 days of the date hereof, you recall and rescind the KSh. 4.5 billion car grant that you unlawfully awarded members of the county assemblies (MCAs) in January 2021 to induce them to pass the BBI Constitutional Amendment Bill. With the approval of Parliament, half of the money recovered should be applied to providing support for families and small businesses worst affected by the economic effects of the Covid-19 containment measures. The other half should be applied to paying off part of the $2.34 billion loan recently approved for Kenya by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- Within 7 days of the date hereof, announce a timetable for setting up within ninety (90) days of a Truth Commission to investigate the nature, causes and consequences of corruption in Kenya, with powers, inter alia, to make recommendations for prosecutions, asset recovery, lustration, and, in appropriate cases, granting amnesty in exchange for truth and return of stolen public funds and assets
Mr. President, I look forward to your timely response with regard to the foregoing issues to enable us to proceed with making preparations for
the proposed national conversation for the salvation of our country. If I do not hear from you within seven days of the date hereof we shall be compelled to take other appropriate and necessary steps to save our beloved country and salvage our children’s future without any further reference to you.
May I take this opportunity to convey to you, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration
Yours faithfully,
Njonjo Mue.
