Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua invited former President Uhuru Kenyatta and every other Kenyan for talks over a tax payment plan.
Speaking during a meeting with senators in Mombasa on Thursday, February 2, Gachagua responded to Uhuru, saying that every Kenyan must pay tax.
He noted that he was alive to the huge amount of unpaid taxes owed by some individuals and that the government was open to working out a repayment module.
{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/fxFXfAj6x4c.jpg?itok=gT6jStlo","video_url":"","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}
"Make arrangements, and pay it and if you have a problem with what we are asking you to pay, we are open to discussion. Come, and we will agree on how you can pay in bits, say Ksh1 billion every month until you are done.
"There is no problem and there is no need of making noise. What belongs to God belongs to God, and what belongs to Ceasar belongs to him," the DP noted.
Gachagua added that neither he nor President William Ruto had the power to exempt any individual from paying taxes and put tough conditions for an exemption.
"If you want to be exempted from paying taxes, buy an advert in the newspaper and apply to the people of Kenya. Let those who have not been paying tax not get jittery," he added.
He called for the Senators and Members of Parliament to back the President by backing the bill to have all Kenyans pay tax. Opposition leaders, he added, ought to avoid the propaganda allegedly peddled by the media to tarnish the Kenya Kwanza administration.
"Sometimes we make very serious pronouncements out there and that depends on the circumstances. Today we have no reason to say anything acrimonious but that does not tire us that if situations change, we will not comment," he joked.
The DP also trolled Uhuru's regime, stating that the money they seized from him after his accounts were frozen over graft cases was refunded.
On January 31, Uhuru responded to calls from Kenya's Kwanza government to have his family and former President Daniel Moi pay taxes, including land rates.
The former President stated that he was unbothered by the noise of idle politicians and would continue minding his own business.
