That is an article’s headline in the Business Daily on 5th December 2018 portraying a desperate government determined to tighten the noose on its citizens! Kenya is currently languishing in debts standing at Sh5.15 Trillion! “…In accordance with Finance Act, 2018, the presumptive tax shall become payable from January 1, 2019. All eligible taxpayers are advised to pay for the presumptive tax at the time of payment for business permit fee or trade licence,” said the KRA in a notice published in the local dailies. (https://www.businessdailyafrica.com, 05/12/2018).
Kenyan government like any secular capitalist regime its capitalist economic system demands that taxation and borrowing be the only the primary sources of government income. Hence, its expenditure is dependent on taxation and interest-based loans. What is shocking is that Kenya is a country blessed with vast resources e.g. mineral deposits, arable land, vast water bodies and recently discovered soft-oil deposits, titanium etc. could propel Kenya to global economic liberation if were to be fully utilized! However, currently almost all the vast resources have been privatized and handed over to western owned companies who in return remit meagre royalties to the Kenyan regime! Furthermore, enormous earnings are shipped abroad and benefitting western countries’ economy at the expense of Kenya’s economy! On the other hand, citizens are plunged into further poverty-stricken miserable lifestyles due to merciless taxation initiatives and mindboggling borrowing spree initiatives!
Islam under the Khilafah (Islamic State) re-established upon the methodology of the Prophet (saw), will be executed comprehensively including the Islamic economic system emanating from it. The Islamic economic policy will be to secure the satisfaction of all basic needs for every individual completely, and to enable him to satisfy his luxuries as much as he can as person living in a particular society that has a certain way of life.
In the Khilafah (Islamic State) the Bait ul-Mal (The State Treasury) will include the following revenue sources: booties (Fai’), spoils (Ghana’im), land tax (Kharaj), head tax (Jizya), different types of public property revenues, the revenues of the State properties, the tithes (Ushr), the fifth of the hidden treasure (Rikaz), the minerals, and the funds of the Zakat. Note: The tax mentioned here (Land Tax & Head tax) should not be mistaken as the ones currently being imposed on people by the secular regimes. Taxation and interest-loans are prohibited in Islam. The Khilafah will not impose taxes upon its citizens except in some cases such as famine and Jihad. However, the tax is only, taken on the wealth that surpasses that which an individual normally uses to satisfy his basic needs and luxuries. Hence, it achieves the right of livelihood for everyone individually, and facilitates the securing of the luxuries. At the same time Islam sets certain limits within which the individual can earn in order to satisfy hi basic needs and luxuries and organize his relationships with others according to a particular system.
Kenya and in general Africa’s renaissance lies in replacing the secular capitalist ideology and its filthy systems emanating from it including that of Mafia democracy, exploitative economic system and social liberalism etc, which are the source of its miseries and catastrophes plaguing it. Alternatively, embrace the Khilafah Project under the Call for Islamic Revival, which currently reverberates across the world and whose re-establishment on the methodology of the Prophet (saw) will propel Kenya and Africa to a greater civilization full of tranquility, peace and prosperity never witnessed before throughout the secular colonial grip!
Ali Nassoro Ali
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Kenya