Azimio leader Raila Odinga has torn into President William Ruto's economic policies which he says are insensitive to Kenyans' feelings.
In a 43-point statement on Tuesday, Raila said Ruto proceeded and imposed punitive taxes on Kenyans against all indications that citizens were not in touch with the revenue-raising proposals in the Finance Bill, 2023.
"In the run-up to the vote on what is now the Finance Act, polls showed that more than 90 per cent of Kenyans rejected it. Even after MPs voted in favour of the Act, polls still showed that majority of Kenyans did not like it."
Raila was speaking when he met the International Press Association of East Africa (IPAEA) at a Nairobi hotel for what he said was to exchange views.
The opposition chief acknowledged that the high cost of living is not exclusively a Kenyan problem but Kenya is the only country that adopted punitive containment measures that are hurtful to its people.
No country, he said, responded to the high cost of living by raising taxes the way Kenya did.
"Nearly all other countries embraced policies that eased the pain. Kenya embraced policies that worsened the pain," he said.
Raila said whereas it is imperative that Kenya honours her debt obligation, raising taxes to foot the bill was a wrong move that should have been avoided.
The government, he said, had the option to request debt relief in the form of highly concessional rescheduling of external and domestic public debt, including debt owed to China.
"Kenya could have pursued comparable treatment of commercial debt. It chose to burden citizens with taxes. What are citizens supposed to do in such circumstances? he posed.
Raila at the same time defended the opposition over its failure to shoot down the Finance Bill saying the Kenya Kwanza government used artificial numerical advantage to pass it.
He said the government embarked on an undemocratic scheme and lured some opposition MPs to its side to achieve the artificial majority in Parliament.
"Those MPs teamed up with the Executive to defeat the wishes of the people. Which is why protection and respect for the independence and autonomy of political parties in the spirit of multiparty democracy is also a core issue we are prosecuting against this regime," he said.
