PANOS NETWORK - REPORTING TAX RESEARCH IN KENYA

: By Michael Omondi; 20 November 2009

Documents revealing how MPs were spending taxes led to outrage in Kenya and helped ensure some of the country’s worst-offending MPs were not re-elected. Tax-payers are increasingly demanding to know how their money is being spent, helping to reduce corruption and mis-management of funds by MPs.

Michael Otieno Oloo, a 35-year-old political science lecturer and anti-corruption activist, is emerging as an unlikely central figure in Kenya's parliament.

: By Eric Kadenge; 25 November 2009

Street hawkers face a daily battle with the authorities to sell their goods on the streets of Nairobi. Some street vendors would prefer to run a legitimate business and pay tax on their earnings. So far that’s proven hard to organise and many vendors on the wrong side of the law regularly pay out nearly as much money in bribes as they would in tax.

Eric Kadenge reports.

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: By Isaac Tetteh; 27 November 2009

Ghana’s government is keen to raise more income from tax. To achieve this, its president, former tax professor John Atta Mills wants to widen the country’s tax base. Over the past 30 years successive governments have pushed through tax reforms – some violently opposed by the public. As a result, governments have been forced to be more transparent about spending.

Isaac Tetteh reports from Accra. He began by asking citizens in Accra whether they think their tax money is being spent wisely.

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GHANA: TAXATION? WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME? (TRANSCRIPT)	30 kB

THE PANOS
GLOBAL SOUTH
NETWORK

TO FOSTER
PUBLIC DEBATE,
PLURALISM AND
DEMOCRACY

REPORTING TAX RESEARCH IN KENYA

Panos London and Panos Eastern Africa worked with two main partners to convene a workshop for researchers, CSOs and Kenyan media representatives at Lake Naivasha in Kenya on 15–17 November 2009.

The purpose of the workshop was to build the capacity of all three groups – researchers, media and CSOs – to interact productively to increase coverage of tax and governance issues in the Kenyan media. Another workshop aim was to help establish a forum or network of collaborators in the East Africa region to assure continued debate and coverage of these issues.

The workshop resulted in increased media coverage, with research adding depth to the reporting – and the establishment of the East Africa Tax and Governance Network.

Panos partnered with CommGAP, a global programme at the World Bank to promote the use of communication in governance reform programmes; with the Centre for the Future State (CFS), based at the Institute of Development Studies, in the United Kingdom. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) and CommGAP provided funding for the workshop.

KENYA: TAXPAYERS FIGHT BACK

KENYA: TAXING TIMES

GHANA: TAXATION? WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

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