No tax increase after referendum - Isaac Ruto

Governors pushing for the Pesa Mashinani campaign have rebuffed assertions that the proposed referendum will will lead to increased taxes by the central government.

Council of Governors chairman Isaac Ruto argued that the referendum campaign is meant to unlock funds already collected by Treasury.

“No one should lie to us that taxes will increase. They have our money and they should release them to us,” he told a funds drive in Kisumu on Saturday.

“They have held on to Sh40 billion meant for county roads, another Sh24 billion they are telling us will build water dams. Why don’t you give us that money we make our people’s lives better?” he said.

He was accompanied his Kisumu and Kericho counterparts Jack Ranguma and Prof Paul Chepkwony.

Mr Ruto criticized the allocation of Sh19 billion by the central government to vaccinate children.

“Why do we need such a large amount of money to do things that can be done by the counties for a much lesser amount?” he posed.

PATRONAGE

He said that Kenyans are tired of patronage by the presidency.

“We no longer want the patronage that has been with us for 50 years. We are saying we need development in the counties now!” he said.

He accused Deputy President William Ruto of using his cronies to “abuse Raila and governors”.

“Ruto should stop abusing Raila. He should stop using his own problems to abuse Raila in Rift Valley. Hatuna shida na Raila (We do not have problems with Raila),” he said.

Kericho governor Prof Paul Chepkwony said that the push for more funds was to help counties register faster growth.

“No country in the world has grown to the levels we want Kenya to be by having less than 45 per cent of its revenue sent to the lower levels of government,” he said.