Taxation and Development in a Global Economy -laying a Basis for Tax Reforms in Kenya
Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the relationship between taxation and development on
the one hand, and the challenges posed to both taxation and development, by
globalization, on the other hand. It starts by rejecting the narrow economic
conceptions of development - which equate development with such things as
GDP growth, modernization etc - and re-conceptualises development in terms
that identifies it with the realization of substantive freedoms and the achievement
of social justice, before concluding that the conception of development which is
relevant to Africa in general and Kenya in particular is a communitarian
conception. It then considers the capacity of the free market paradigm to
facilitate the realization of development in its communitarian sense and concludes
that since free market paradigm has a tendency to exacerbate rather than eradicate
poverty and inequalities, there is need to shift from free market paradigm to a
human rights paradigm. The success of human rights paradigm, however, rests
upon two fundamental pillars: taxation and an autonomous state - both of which
are, however, threatened by globalization. The quest for development therefore
translates into a quest for appropriate response to globalization. It concludes
that since no state can avoid or reverse globalization, the only option for states to
effectively manage globalization is by minimizing its negative impacts while at the
same time maximizing its positive impacts, through innovative tax reforms.
These issues are then considered in the context of Kenya and a finding is made that
although Kenya has the appropriate normative and institutional framework for the
application of human rights paradigm, it lacks the two indispensable pillars
discussed above. This is because it has succumbed to global governance and
has, as a consequence, reformed its tax system to facilitate globalization - in the
interests of the West while lacking the autonomy to reform the said tax system to
minimize the negative impacts of globalization (or to take advantage of its
positive impacts) in its best interests. This dissertation therefore recommends
appropriate tax reforms that would enable Kenya to manage the global economy
in the interests of its own development.
Citation
LLM ThesisSponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
University of Nairobi School of law