This baseline research captures radio audiences opinions, knowledge and beliefs of citizens’ rights as tax payers, and government roles and responsibilities for tax justice, budgeting and public service delivery, while promoting discussions and raising community awareness around tax justice.
The radio project was carried out with radio stations, two based in Turkana and Wajir counties and one national radio station broadcasting from Nairobi. Using interactive radio and SMS to get views from people who listened to the radio shows, we gathered opinions from citizens living in 35 counties, mainly youth (25- 29) and men (73%). Across all sites, 559 people sent their views to a free short-code managed by Africa’s Voices, sending 1149 messages during three shows.
Two of the shows presented a scenario with a moral dilemma related to paying taxes (VAT and business). Participants tend to agree with payment of taxes (VAT and business) for moral and civic reasons. The discussion revolved around poor service delivery, corruption by business and government, and unfairness of some taxes for poor people and small business. This study also revealed that people who are more prone to evade taxes are also those more dissatisfied with public services.