Many of us especially those in formal employment and the middle-class category think as long as we have their salaries, politics and activism is for the politicians and idle people.
This attitude is not only a demonstration of naivety about how the economy and money markets work but also a lack of wisdom on how to achieve your financial goals. Take for instance what is going on in Kenya – the government raiding your pay slip to sink more money into the bottomless NSSF just 2 months ago. They then propose to deduct you more for NHIF, when the fund cannot account for any extra benefits on Universal Healthcare since 2015 when the current deductions were significantly increased.
As if we are not tired of funding functionally dead public agencies, in the Finance Bill 2023, the government wants all employed people to contribute to a National Housing Development Fund (NHDF) by force. This is notwithstanding that since the start of this project in 2018/19, nobody knows who the contractors are, how they were selected and who the beneficial owners are. In a way, the top political leaders and executive functionaries believe Kenyans are so gullible that they can force anything the government fancies down their throats at will.
If you are keen on making money and growing your wealth, you MUST take charge and proactively engage in the decision-making process of the government. Public participation now is a mandatory requirement in every government policy, take time to educate yourself on what’s going on around you and see how you can have your voice heard.
Here are five reasons why this is Mandatory for each one of us:
- Taxes and government levies take away your money. While it is a civic obligation and duty for citizens to pay their taxes to the state, such resources must be used for public goods and services in a responsible manner. It cannot be that a government taxes its citizens to profit and enrich political and bureaucratic elites. It becomes a duty for every responsible citizen to speak against funds and levies that do not improve the general welfare of the people but target plunder;
- Tax laws have opportunities to minimize your tax liabilities without breaking the law – by design tax laws provide loopholes that those who follow and understand the law can use to reduce the amount they are required to pay to the state. It is not for the government to educate you on these loopholes because they are designed to benefit the tax savvy. Many of us still pay taxes that are avoidable unlike wealthy people and corporates;
- You owe your children and grandchildren a better future – failing to resist unjust laws, taxes and levies is akin to betraying the very end of your children that you are preparing them for. Each generation is required to take up their civic responsibilities and obligations seriously. That is the only way we can have a prosperous nation and society;
- Remaining silent in the face of oppression and misuse of public resources is the highest betrayal of your highest civic duty – we can only live a life of consequence by not only fighting for our money and wealth from the abundance of nature but also by making the society and country better than we found it;
- Evils left unchallenged will surely eventually come back for the little you own –keeping quiet in the face of the excesses of government will eventually catch up with you at your personal hideout. Your money and your wealth are directly co-joined in the economy. We earn our money and store our wealth within the economy. Killing the economy eventually kills your personal livelihood and wealth too.
As a concluding thought, the singer once sang ‘usinyamaze maovu yakitendeka’.