🚨 GOONS CANNOT SILENCE THE PEOPLE'S VOICE We strongly condemn the violent disruption of the Post-Budget Forum at All Saints Cathedral, a peaceful gathering that brought together citizens, civil society, faith leaders, and private sector actors to discuss the national budget and its impact on ordinary Kenyans. The use of violence and intimidation to silence public participation is an attack on democracy and the constitutional rights of all Kenyans. This is not an isolated incident. The growing use of goons to disrupt lawful civic engagement and instill fear must be rejected by all who believe in democracy, accountability, and the rule of law. No amount of intimidation will stop citizens from engaging in conversations about the future of our country. #DefendDemocracy #ProtectCivicSpace #PublicParticipation #PeoplesBudget #Kenya

Henry T. Wooster: career diplomat, polyglot trouble-shooter and now Donald Trump’s pick for Kenya 🇺🇸🤝🇰🇪 Henry T. Wooster, a Minister-Counselor in America’s Senior Foreign Service, has spent more than three decades being sent to the world’s trickiest corners. Nominated on June 2nd by President Trump as the next American ambassador to Kenya, he arrives with a résumé that reads like a map of American foreign-policy headaches: Iran desks, Baghdad’s provincial politics, Pakistan’s nuclear-armed politics, Russia-watching in Moscow, Central Asia strategy at the National Security Council, and a stint advising the Joint Special Operations Command. He has already run embassies as chargé in Amman and, since June 2025, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Before that he was America’s ambassador to Jordan (2020-23), serving under both Mr Trump’s first term and Joe Biden’s, an unusual feat of bipartisanship in an age of polarisation. Educated at Amherst College and Yale, Mr Wooster began his working life as an Army Reserve officer before joining the State Department. He has held nearly every rung on the diplomatic ladder: Iran desk officer, director of the Office of Iranian Affairs, political counsellor in Islamabad, deputy chief of mission in Paris, and deputy assistant secretary for the Maghreb and Egypt. Fluent in French and Russian with working Arabic, Farsi and even Syriac, he is the sort of old-school professional who can read the room in half a dozen languages and several time zones. His appointment is more than a routine promotion. In the first Trump administration, a fair number of embassies went to political donors or campaign loyalists. Kenya, however, is getting a genuine expert. Nairobi is no diplomatic backwater: it is East Africa’s economic engine, a counter-terrorism partner, a hub for American business and a linchpin in Washington’s efforts to counter Chinese and Russian influence on the continent. By choosing a career Foreign Service officer rather than a fundraiser or Fox News commentator, Mr Trump is signalling that he takes the place seriously. In an administration often accused of transactional diplomacy, this is the sort of appointment that suggests pragmatism may sometimes trump patronage. Whether the Senate agrees, and whether Mr Wooster can navigate Kenya’s domestic politics with the same deftness he has shown in Amman or Port-au-Prince.. remains to be seen. But on paper, at least, America is sending one of its best to a country that matters.

Should the taxpayer still bear the burden of proof in instances where a tax dispute with the Revenue Authority is based in pre-populated & third party data? In my submission before the National Assembly's Finance & Planning Committee on behalf of the Tax Research Centre at @StrathU, I argue that Finance Bill 2026's proposals seeking to anchor Incomes & Expenses Validation in law will be incomplete if they do not include a proposal for the the Revenue Authority being saddled with the burden of proof in such instances. Here's why: · Finance Bill 2026 proposes to amend Sec75 of the Tax Procedures Act to provide that the Revenue Authority may use technology to pre-populate tax returns on behalf of a person required to submit or lodge a tax return · Finance Bill 2026 further proposes that a person required to submit or lodge a tax return may rely on pre-populated return generated by the Revenue Authority to file their return · Finance Bill 2026 proposes to amend Sec112 to provide that the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury may make Regulations for the procedure for the submission or lodging of returns based on pre-populated tax returns generated by the Revenue Authority Here's where the problem is: · In all this, Sec56(1) which provides that "In any proceedings, the burden shall be on the taxpayer to prove that a tax decision is incorrect" remains unchanged · Sec56(1) is predicated on the fact that Kenya has been running on a self-assessment based regime & the data upon which tax disputes emerges was held by the taxpayer · With Incomes & Expenses Validation & the onset of a Dual Assessment regime in Kenya, taxpayers are now exposed not just to errors of judgement & data on their part, but also errors of technology & transmission which are out of their control · Can we really still have the burden of proof lying exclusively with the taxpayer in an environment where tax compliance has shifted from a function of record keeping to one where system integration reliability is now a key factor?