Homabay Senator Moses Kajwang has criticised the move to question public officers about their net worth during vetting.
This is after the new cabinet nominees were vetted by the National Assembly’s Appointments Committee where they publicized the millions they own.
While appearing on a morning show on a local Tv(Citizen), Kajwang termed the net worth question a useless one.
“Out of the inquiry we have been doing yesterday and the previous day on vetting of public officials, we are bring given huge amounts of net worth. That is one of the most useless question we are asking,” he said.
According to him, when such a question is brought up, those being vetted should also be questioned on the amount of taxes they pay.
“If you are going to ask someone their net worth, then you must ask them how much they have also paid in terms of taxes. Someone tells you that my income has grown to 100 million over the last one year because of the appreciation of value but we introduce taxes on everything including capital gains. Has this person paid taxes commensurate to the increase in their wealth?” He posed.
Kajwang’ added that the move to publicize net worth makes the young people feel poor.
“And you are the one saying that you are fighting for their rights and when it comes to declaration of net, you are telling them fine I did not do well in school but am billionaire, so get rich first and explain later,” he said.
