NASA leaders now support 8pc fuel tax proposal but for one year

National Super Alliance (NASA) lawmakers have backtracked on an earlier decision to shoot down President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal to have the 16pc fuel tax reduced by half.

The decision came after a NASA Parliamentary Group meeting with party leader Raila Odinga at Orange House on Tuesday morning.

“Our support is however conditional for a period of one year,” a statement read by Junet Mohamed (Suna East MP) said.

“If the government makes genuine effort to implement these proposals, we will sit down and negotiate an extension of our support for another year if that will still be necessary,” he added.

The lawmakers listed several demands that they expect the government to oblige to failure to which they will withdraw their support.

Top on their demands is that the State eliminate extravagant travel expenditure, with one the cases cited as that of leaders who only fly First Class because of “certain aliments.”

NASA legislators also want the government to live within its means and stop wastage of public funds.

“Currently every Cabinet Secretary and State officials are driven in fuel guzzlers complete with chase cars and it’s not sustainable. This is not in tune with the country’s economic situation,” the NASA statement read by Junet Mohamed said.

Other austerity measures proposed by the NASA leaders include taming appetite for State loans and ambitious infrastructure projects and reforms for the banking sector in line with the war on corruption.

The opposition MPs also want the State to speed up investigations on corruption scandals and create a better program to recover stolen funds stashed in countries abroad.

They also called for an overhaul of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) over claims that some of their officials are engaged in corruption cases.