Budgets; A poor man's really?

As expected in the last budget, we had those professional budget huggers, people who will shout how the budget was a poor man's budget.

But after taking my time to study the implication, two things struck me, which I have a burning desire to compare with you.

1. The budget cleared the loans on coffee farmers, but added tax on the sugarcane farmers. What doeas this mean? Or, where do we grow coffee and where do we grow sugar cane?

Coffee is basically grown in Central province, while sugar cane is largely grown in Nyanza, Western and Coast Provinces. By clearing all loans on coffee farming, the president is simply doing what he has perfected. And Kenyans must open their eyes to this.

By adding more tax on sugar, the president, is again engaging in double speak. He is basically punishing the people of Western Kenya and those from the Coast, maybe because of their political leanings.

The end result is that people of Central Kenya will have benefitted from these rebates, while people from other parts will continue to wallow in poverty, state induced poverty. And then we will be told that the economy has risen by some imaginative figures.

2. The second thing was the increase on the tax on spare parts. This will have a rippling effect on all road users. Majority of Kenyans rely on PSV tranport, and with this increase, there will be fare increase ultimately. This coming in the midst of this state induced poverty on the citizens, coupled with no increase on wages.

I really doubt what this budget was intended for, because, it hurts the common man, for whom, life continues to be hell on earth.

This budget secures my vote firmly with ODM-K

Odhiambo T Oketch Komarock Nairobi