Senate and Parliament Postpone Sittings Indefinitely

The Senate and the National Assembly have indefinitely postponed their sittings, after the restriction of movement into and out of Nairobi took effect on 6th April. The sittings, initially scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday this week, respectively, were to discuss the economic stimulus intervention announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta, tax reliefs in particular, to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. The stimulus interventions included:

• Removal of income tax for all those earning gross monthly income of less than KSh24,000
• Reduction of Pay-As-You-Earn(PAYE) tax from 30% to 25%
• Reduction of resident corporate income tax from 30% to 25%
• Reduction of the Turnover tax rate from 3% to 1%
• Reduction of VAT from 16% to 14%

“The leadership of the two Houses is consulting and shall advise on the means by which urgent business that is before the Houses of Parliament shall be transacted remotely,” KBC quoted National Assembly Speaker, Justin Muturi. With the tax reliefs expected to be implemented from 1st April 2020, all eyes now turn to the two Houses, the Senate and Parliament, seeing that there can never be implementation without approval, as per the Kenyan constitution