Uproar as Atwoli changes tune, supports controversial housing tax

Cotu boss Francis Atwoli

It is now official that poor Kenyans will start paying for the controversial and unlawful 1.5% housing levy.

This is after COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli made an interesting u-turn from being one of the key opposers of the tax to saying that the housing tax is a good thing.

“The housing fund is a good thing. This is a good deal as you will come out as beneficiaries,” he told a shop stewards meeting on Saturday.

The veteran trade unionist said that he had agreed to the tax after the government agreed to increase all salaries by 15%.

“I told the government that they should give us the 15 percent wage increase in exchange for the implementation of the new levy.”

In September last year, Atwoli filed a case in court timing the tax as illegal because workers were not consulted and that the government did not have a criteria for allocating the houses.

All these concerns have not been addressed.

The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) obtained an order suspending the implementation of the tax in April last year, pending the hearing and determination of the case.

The housing levy has raised a big storm among Kenyans especially after the government disclosed that the houses will be distributed on a lottery basis.

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