President William Ruto has said that the ruling by three high court judges against the 1.5% house levy stand to be revised.
The President said that judges found small pitfalls with the tax law, and that the law will be relooked at, and be sent back to parliament for reading by parliamentarians, and consequently be ascended to by the President to become a law.
The President started an affordable housing project for every working Kenyan, and 3% levy put on it before Kenyans complained that the 3% was too much for the already overburdened Kenyan taxpayer. It forced the President to half the tax to 1.5% levy.
In the process, still people complained until the matter found itself in court. Today, three judges: Judges Lawrence Mugambi, Christine Meoli and David Majanja ruled that the introduction of the levy was discriminatory since it imposed taxes on salaried Kenyans alone and excluded those working in the informal sector.
“…That levy against persons in formal employment with the exclusion of other non-formal without justification, discriminatory, irrational, arbitrary and in violation of Articles 27, 201 of the constitution,” Justice Majanja said.
However, today while reacting to the ruling, the President remained upbeat that there shouldn’t be a cause for alarm, since the law would be revisited. “I know the courts have said we should go and re-adjust the law to make it aligned appropriately, that we are going to do,” he said.
The President noted that the affordable housing programme was critical for the creation of employment opportunities for the youth whose targeted employment capacity is expected to hit 500,000 jobs by 2027.
He said so far, the housing project has already created 120,000 jobs for the youth who form a critical clog in the country’s economic matrix.
“If we don’t engage these people (youth) in productive work, they will become a very big challenge to all of us. So, we hope that the 1.5% house levy will be considered by the court,” Ruto said.
