Jillo Kadida
9 October 2008
Nairobi — Taxation of judges' salaries took a new dimension when they decided to send Chief Justice Evan Gicheru to meet with President Kibaki on the matter.
The decision was reached after a number of meetings were held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sources in the Judiciary informed the Nation that the Court of Appeal judges met with their boss on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, representatives of High Court judges held a meeting with the Chief Justice to present their grievances.
Seek audience
The judges had planned to seek audience with Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura after their attempt to meet him a week ago failed. They also planned to hold a crisis meeting with judges from all courts across the country to discuss the issue, but this was cancelled.
They are accusing the Government of ambushing them with the tax deductions, which were effected in their September pay, and wanted to air their grievances.
In their earlier meetings, the judges indicated they would first exhaust dialogue avenues before resort to constitutional action against the State.
The taxation is part of proposals by former Finance minister Amos Kimunya in his Budget Speech in June. He proposed that MPs and holders of constitutional offices start paying taxes like all Kenyans.
MPs are still enjoying tax-free allowances as a decision on how much money will be deducted is yet to be made.
Car maintenance
Each of Kenya's 222 MPs earns more than Sh800,000 a month, out of which only Sh200,000 is subjected to tax. The untaxed allowances are commuted mileage, car, constituency, entertainment, extraneous, house and car maintenance.
If the law is changed, each MP would pay at least Sh233,931 in taxes a month in Pay-As-You-Earn based on the Sh800,000 package. Their combined tax would contribute at least Sh51.9 million a month or Sh802.8 million a year to the Treasury.
Following the deductions, judges parted with between Sh70,000 and Sh90,000 individually to the tax man. A high court judge normally earns Sh300,000 a month, while their Court of Appeal counterparts take home Sh500,000.
This would means that on monthly basis, Government will now collect about Sh3,150,000 from High Court judges and Sh900,000 from Court of Appeal ones.
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