

Kenya: Press Statement – Madaraka Express Negative Media Coverage (11.07.2018)














“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”- Frédéric Bastiat
There are sometimes I wonder, not even a narrow escape of willingness to be humiliated or say, that you know nothing about the subject or feel that your out of your bounds. However, that is never the case for this President, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is defending the Mobile Money Tax and Social Media Tax. Like it is the gift of heaven. I have taken the two most notable quotes, because it really shows his intent. He really wants to silence people and not let them communicate in the modern era. In Uganda it is time to buy beepers, send wires and hope to God the Pigeon get back on time. Because, the President says anyone speaking or enjoying himself or herself on Social is Malicious.
“Therefore, some of us, myself included, either earn the dollars or save the dollars by producing products instead of importing them, but some of our countrymen donate those dollars back to the foreigners by chatting endlessly on the social media. Is this correct or fair? Is it good for our country? Mobile money transfer is, of course, different from the social media chatting. Social media chatting is a luxury by those who are enjoying themselves or those who are malicious” (Museveni, 2018).
That he calls that a luxury now is insulting, as this is means of communicating in the 21st Century. Maybe, just maybe, it is time for him to rear his cows and leave the seat for someone else. Because, this is just too foolish. If he thinks he has a sound mind and clear assessment, this isn’t it.
If he wants things to the public, if he want good credit and use of public space in this era. You use social media to gain attention. That is why even the most notable figures are on Social Media realising their content online. That is why the TV stations are on Youtube and other place, to gain interests and show their style to the world. If that is malicious, maybe, he himself should shut-up, as he has no trouble calling people our as vermin and insects. That is the insulting part, he has the mouth of degraded farmer and not a statesman. So it is not like the President himself carries no MALICE!
“As to social- media tax, all the moral reasons are in favour of that tax. The social – media users have no right to squander the dollars I earn from my coffee , my milk etc by endlessly donating money to foreign telephone Companies through chatting or even lying and, then, they are allergic to even a modest contribution to their country whose collective wealth they are misusing” (Musveni, 2018).
Moral reasons? Not just merely getting more funds to spoil yourself and your kind? Really? That is the reason, the reason for the new taxes, so that the State House can spend more and use more of the wealth on foreign travels, expensive food and whatnot. A state that indulge the MPs and State Officials, mushrooms the cronyism, not to forget the corrupt behaviour of high-ranking officials. All of these will get a cut of these taxes. It is not like it will go to roads or hospitals. They are depleted as they is and the MPs are getting more perks and bigger houses by the day. So don’t speak of your coffee and milk, your milking the system so hard, if it was a cow. The cow wouldn’t be breathing because of the pressure to produce more milk in time.
It is your state that has given the Foreign Companies license to have Telecommunications, and they are offering these services. Your are already taxing the airtime and data-bundles, the profits and the other VAT and such. So it is not like the consumers aren’t paying taxes on the spending on the Cellphones and the services included. However, you are not targeting the Telecoms, but your targeting the people. You have the same excuse as Minister for ICT. I understand that stupid arguments runs from the top in this government. It is very visible. The paywall is for the consumer and not for the company. That is what this tax is doing; it is shielding the consumer from using, unless they pay the tax.
What sort of moral obligation does the consumer who pays all the taxes for the services to be taxed double, because the state doesn’t have the heart or the ability to tax the Telecoms properly? Aye? Tell me, please? Your royal highness?
It is time to get out of your village mentality and get back to real world. Apparently, no one has had the ability to tell you so. Nevertheless, if you would consider, the Social Media would be a good tool to get tourist, even get more foreign investors to grab land. So that you can take the benefits and the land from the people, as you usually do. They can see the beautiful hunting grounds or fertile land, and you can give it away, because people are posting the scenery and nature of Uganda. However, that will be pointless and costly now, because of you. That will only be for the ones with key interests of doing so. Peace.
Reference:
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – ‘Why government is taxing social media – Museveni’ (04.07.2018)

There are sometimes you wished the government did their due diligence, even though it true, before levying taxes like the Social Media Tax. That can now be questioned and that with force as well, becasuse the Minister for ICT Frank Tumwebaze tried to defend the new taxes, but it is seriously flawed. First I let him argue and defend, before I address the matter.
“While Ugandans rightly argue that government should be taxing OTTs such as Facebook, the Minister noted that these ignore the applicability of this. “Internet Service Providers such as MTN and Airtel are licensed by UCC; they pay taxes and have invested heavily in building networks. But OTTS come and freely push content here using the existing networks; they contribute nothing to the building of the networks; they just get their money and go away,” he explained. “The debate therefore should be on how to capture OTTS to contribute to expanding of local networks and sustaining them.” “Even if government targeted Facebook, and said we are going to block the Facebook gateway if they don’t pay to URA; the same (public) uproar will come because we are blocking social media.” (Waswa, 2018).
They are literally blocking the Social Media as of today. That with a paywall through the existing Mobile Networks to access Social Media. Therefore, he is letting the people take the burden and not the companies. He talks about the content and service delivery, but the ones hurt is the people. The users/citizens use the Social Media who pays the OTT Tax. The tax is not on the Social Media Companies nor the Telecom Companies; that is just the fact and should be a concern for the minister.
Therefore, even with the tax at hand, the public is paying the taxman, not the ones putting forward the products through the Mobile Networks or Online. That is why the argument of Tumwebaze is flawed. He is missing one key ingredient, and that should be stated. It is not the companies that are paying these levied taxes, it is the users or the citizens themselves. That means, whatever the companies does, they are shielded, because they are not directly paying the levied tax.
The honourable Minister is losing on two grounds:
By putting up a paywall, he is blocking the ones that cannot afford to communicate through the Social Media.
Secondly, he is by definition not taxing the companies, but the users of these companies.
Therefore, he should go back to the drawing board and find other crayons, because the colouring of the Picture, he is doing right now is to be a bit blunt, ugly. Peace.
Reference:
Waswa, Sam – ‘Tumwebaze Explains Social Media Predicament: ‘There’s No Way of Taxing OTT Companies’ (04.07.2018) link: https://chimpreports.com/tumwebaze-explains-social-media-predicament-theres-no-way-of-taxing-ott-companies/


