‘Doing business in Kenya is almost criminal’, Kenyans react to the hardship of doing business

A business lady Faith Mutembei revealed the high cost of doing a simple business on Facebook. The revelations shows how the govt has not made it conducive for ‘small’ Kenyans to open and operate businesses.

The post whose screenshot has gone viral has shocked Kenyans. Many are wondering how the World Bank Group would always christen Kenya as one of the best in the ‘ease of doing business’.

Kenya was ranked position 56 in the World Bank Group's Ease of Doing Business Index, an improvement from position 61 in 2018. The country moved 80 places up since 2014. However, that is not shown on the ground.

It is the same PR that the Jubilee Government has been doing with foreigners, i.e. selling Kenya to foreigners forgetting that there are people, Kenyans in Kenya.

Dr Wandia Njoya puts it more aptly in her article, " Invisible Citizens: Branding Kenya for Foreign Investors and Tourists ' "The establishment of Brand Kenya is just one of the more egregious examples of Kenya’s history of governments more preoccupied with pleasing foreigners than with serving its own citizens. Every time Kenyans are in distress, the main worry of the government is whether the investors will notice anything, and how soon we can cover up our human weaknesses so as not to scare them away", Dr Njoya says Here is the post from Faith Mutembei Happy Sunday People, so many of you have asked about Mountain Brooke drinking water. I must confess that initially I did not have an answer, rather I was too depressed to even talk about it publicly. Perhaps, this explains why you will no longer see #MountainBrooke drinking water on your favourite supermarket counters. Sad yes, but it’s the reality on the ground. This is how punitive doing business in Kenya is:- A water Refill and Packing Station and these are the licenses and taxes. County Single permit License 18,500/- Public Health Licence and Testing 13,000/- KEBS certification 102,000/- KRA Custom Excise Licence 50,000/- KRA Custom Excise Bond 300,000/- KRA Custom Excise Stamp Minimum 50000/- NEMA License 33,000/- Mandatory Independent Testing Lab and MOU 15,000/- on top There is 0.5% of Monthly turnover Stardards Level tax. Not forgetting the Ksh 5.47 excise for every litre of water sold. That's NOT All Each county requires you to have a distribution license charged annually... If you sell your water in five counties you have to obtain licenses from each, which can go up to 50k in some counties. Public health licenses notwithstanding. Surely doing business in Kenya is almost criminal! Reactions https://twitter.com/SokoAnalyst/status/1301027505340637185?s=20