Tax on books ensures we raise a generation of ignorant zombies

The Nairobi International Book Fair starts on Wednesday, September 21, against a backdrop of an increasingly punitive tax on Kenya’s book industry.

Textbooks now attract a 16 per cent Value Added Tax. It should be noted that these were the first tax measures the Jubilee government put in place when it came to power.

Kenyans are, by the day, being reminded that the government is funding heavy infrastructure projects and thus it requires all the money it can get from Kenyans. 

Surely, the impressive infrastructure cannot be funded at the expense of our children’s education.

It is an established fact that the attainment of education is the surest way for ordinary Kenyans to unshackle themselves from poverty.

It is the reason why parents will make all kinds of sacrifices to see to it that their children get an education, in the hope that they will be assured better lives in future.

By enforcing VAT on books the Jubilee government has thrown obstacles onto the only assured path poor Kenyans have to improving their lives.

In the absence of a better explanation it can be said that Uhuru Kenyatta’s government is hell-bent on taking Kenyans to the dark ages of ignorance and poverty.

Today, parents are finding it extremely hard to buy books for their children and bookshops are closing down for lack of sales. Publishers, on the other hand, are laying off staff as a result of poor sales.

Surely, if killing private businesses and rendering Kenyans jobless was the intention of this taxation then it was one of the most ill-advised moves by this government.

Ironically, by virtue of the Free Primary Education, the government is the single largest consumer of textbooks in the country, as it buys books for distribution in public schools.

In effect, the government is taxing itself, which is defeatist.

Even then, money allocated for the purchase of books is barely enough to buy a decent textbook, which is a story for another day.

President Kenyatta does not tire of reminding us how his government has provided electricity to schools around the country, which is in itself  commendable.

But then, of what use is the electricity when school children have no books to read?

The Kenya Publishers Association, groaning from the weight of this punitive taxation, has tried by all means to petition the government to scrap this tax, including visiting State House, to no avail. Theirs has been a voice in the dark. Efforts to have parliamentarians scrap the tax have fallen on deaf ears.

Jubilee parliamentarians mindlessly shot down the motion to remove the tax.

Sabina Chege, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Education, and who brands herself as a caring mother, has been too terrified to offend her bosses by speaking out against the tax despite having been furnished with information on its negative effects on education, by publishers.

Through this tax, the Jubilee government is in essence taxing knowledge; making the attainment of education a most punitive and expensive undertaking.

If this tax is not scrapped it is safe to say that we are bringing up a generation of ignorant zombies.

Ignorant people are easy to manipulate; they lack the capacity to think and thus they don’t question their leaders. It would seem that is the ultimate goal of the Jubilee government.

Oh, by the way have you seen how betting firms are making so much crazy money that they are now sponsoring foreign football clubs?

These, dear President Kenyatta, are the people who will fund the Standard Gauge Railway and the superhighways, if they are taxed properly. Just leave books alone.