Nairobi News

Controversial vlogger Francis Gaitho claimed that infamous ‘Twitter big-wig’ Maverick Aoko, a blogger and former journalist, is being used to distract Kenyans from the divisive Finance Bill 2023 which will see Kenyans pay revised hefty taxes on various goods and services.

He said this on his YouTube page, in response to Aoko’s explosive allegations and exposes earlier this month that she had been sleeping around with several opposition politicians and a former married senior government employee.

For weeks, she was a trending topic just as conversations began on the divisive Finance Bill 2023.

According to Mr Gaitho, he had been receiving direct messages from his fans and followers who also believed Aoko was being used as a distraction while Parliament worked to pass the Finance Bill despite concerns of the runaway high cost of living in Kenya.

“(It was about) Aoko with all these cock and bull stories about her sexual shenanigans, none which I think should be in the public domain but anyway- people choose, I told you choose what you feed your mind with. If your mind is filled with garbage then that’s what you’ll continuously consume. I was watching a doctor speaking about cancer and what feeds cancer what maintains the cancer cells themselves. They said its sugar so cancer loves sugar and if you are depriving yourself of sugar, it goes a long way into eliminating, reducing the risk or whatever. So, it’s the same thing with your mind. All the gutter that you’re consuming is manifested in, you know, we can tell that you’re full of sh*t as an individual and as a Kenyan if you’re always right running with toxic negative sh*t,” began Mr Gaitho.

He listed the following goods and services on which taxes have been proposed as among those Kenyans are being distracted from: taxation of all digital assets such as Bitcoin and non-fungible tokens, taxation of government employees’ per diems, taxation of all income earned by influencers who are brand partners or ambassadors, withholding tax on digital based activities, taxation of women’s beauty products such as wigs and taxation of imported mobile phones (allegedly because President Ruto has a supplier in mind for the cheap mobile phone handsets he promised Kenyans during his campaigns) among others. He also claimed the government was proposing these taxes in order to suppress young people from succeeding in life because “it is the nature of governance.”

Maverick Aoko made news for several days and continues to be bullish and controversial on her Twitter account where she attacks and allegedly exposes opposition allied politicians for whom she worked for as a communication official before she had to leave on bad terms. While bashing them for allegedly sexually using her, she also sings praises for President William Ruto and the Kenya Kwanza government, claiming that instead of using her like some opposition Parliamentarians, they are allegedly paying for her education so that she could be of use to them in the future.

“When you see a distraction mechanism, be smart enough not to consume toxic content so that we can discuss issues that matter to us. Rise up and grow up ,” said Mr Gaitho.

The Finance Bill also contains the proposal to tax Kenyans 3% of their salaries to fund the Housing Fund which will see the government build affordable houses for Kenyans. According to President Ruto, the housing scheme will save more than 6.5 million people living in urban slums.

However, the proposal continues to be met with rejection as some people believe it should be voluntary for one to contribute to the Fund based on whether or not they already own houses. Another point of rejection of this Housing Levy is that a person who contributes to the Fund may end up missing a house and the government says that the buyer will get a refund after seven years with any interest accrued, not immediately. A third point of rejection is that a buyer can also be thrown out of these government built houses if they do not pay the full fee within the stipulated time and their unit given to another buyer. Buyers were told that in the event they no longer had the capacity to pay for the houses, their children could take over. Some people wondered what would happen to people who have no children to do this.

Mr Gaitho is known to controversially comment on topical matters. He has in the past been dragged to court by both former pay-tv channel Supersport and Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Patrice Motsepe over comments he made on his Twitter accounts.

He also unsuccessfully contested for the Thika parliamentary seat in the August 2022 polls

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