LETTERS: Why business friendly policies are needed

Ideas & Debate

LETTERS: Why business friendly policies are needed

Monday, November 25, 2019 22:00

By King’ori Wangechi |

A popular saying goes that when a hyena wants to eat her cubs, she first accuses them of smelling like goats. Our government seems to have taken that route. The economy is undoubtedly performing dismally.

The least and the last thing the government should do is making the business environment hostile and the playground uneven. Recently, the confession of the Speaker of the Senate that the economy is stalling and as leaders, they needed to have a candid discussion about it.

He suggested they go into a room and without phones for a heart to heart talk, what followed was such a meeting, only that it was a politically motivated one, as opposed to a socio-economic agenda. How sad!

Policies and regulations are being made and implemented that seem to be directed at the common Kenya business person. We have seen Kenyan companies’ leaders being manhandled for misunderstanding over tax compliance, which could have been resolved in the boardroom upon invitation. As a result, myriad businesses are closing down almost every month.

Those are hundreds, if not thousands of job losses from Kenyans, as well as loss of government income through taxes.

It started by moving betting adverts watershed period to between Ten in the night and Six the following morning. Some companies folded up, because the business environment was extremely hostile and nobody wanted to give them an ear. Some were giving the government hundreds of millions per month in taxes. Six months down the line and the public coffers are seemingly empty.

As at now, alcoholic advertisements watershed has been moved from 8:30 p.m to 10 p.m. This hurts a stream of stakeholders who were not even consulted. Let us take an example. Company A spends approximately Sh200 million annually in advertising, it uses a media booking agency Q to execute the campaigns for its brands.

The agency is entitled to 18 percent of the Sh200 million, which is roughly Sh38 million annually. When the advertising periods are significantly reduced to just one hour on TV, the company decides it will move its budgets to online platforms, which are not controlled like the mainstream media. The effect is that the agency and her ilk lose significant revenue, and the government in turn loses the taxes remitted by these agencies. To where does that money go? Straight to the foreign, Silicon Valley firms.

Speaking of the Silicon Valley firms, the ground is further unbalanced by banning content on national TV stations, yet the content is readily available on these online platforms. Grind with me here; Kenyan government bans content, the content is available online, and still advertising is pushed toward the said platforms.

The platforms are accessible to and by anyone who has a silver screen on their palm hands. It cannot get more hostile than this! What will happen in this case is a mirror image of the in betting companies. Investors in the country shall fold up in Kenya and go to set base in our neighbouring countries that shall warmly welcome them, give them a more friendly business environment and inject their economy with the taxes from the hardworking Kenyans.

With the current status of the economy, and the punishments being meted toward firms and tax payers in the country, the government looks like it is cutting nose to spite its face. The girl next door shall benefit from our hard work and entrepreneurial skills and economically look, feel and be better. Is the government throwing the bathwater with the baby? Woe unto us!

King’ori Wangechi via email