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No More Higher taxes

Lawmakers have rejected the proposal to increase taxation on alcohol and bottled water, dealing a blow to the Treasury’s plan to generate an additional Sh50.4 billion in revenue in the year starting July. BUSINESS DAILY

What does this mean?

In what is seen as a move aimed at pleasing voters ahead of the August polls, the committee has voted to adjust the duty on excisable goods — which also include fuel and bodabodas — in line with inflation after every two years as opposed to annual changes currently.

The recommended changes to the Finance Bill will likely keep the cost of these goods largely unchanged if adopted by the House before it takes a break on June 9 for campaigns ahead of the August 9 general elections.

But…

This will hurt tax collections by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

James Lee Burke: "The story of Eden, and how it influences my work, is not the story of a snake in a tree, but the story of what we are doing to the tree – what we are doing to the Garden."

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• Contractor to restore old lanes on Mombasa Road...
  New and Improved.

• Kenya's debt repayments to China shoot to Sh1.4 trillion...

  Is China taking all of our taxes?

• Moja Expressway explains why the grass has withered on new road

  Lack of water?

• Liverpool’s quadruple dream died a painful death on Sunday, but Liverpool can still make this one of their greatest ever seasons.

• Ex-Uber executive reveals how driver earnings were slashed in Kenya

Short Insight

Stop getting peer pressure from dead people. Living 300 years ago doesn't make one's opinion special in the name of #AfricanTraditions. Words of ancestors do not necessarily carry more weight than modern words. Ancestors were not necessarily better than us. They did not live in our time. They were normal people, just like us.

You wake up one day and start a new tradition.

That’s how traditions start.

Quick Decency Thought

Just because garlic is good for health doean’t mean your raw garlic breath is pleasant in enclosed public spaces.

Spare everyone some breath?

The Dance Plague

In 1518, a 'dance plague' saw citizens of the French city of Strasbourg reportedly dancing uncontrollably for days on end – with fatal results. It's a bizarre event that continues to fascinate artists and writers...

The Strasbourg dancing plague might sound like the stuff of legend, but it’s well documented in 16th-century historical records. It’s also not the only known incident of its kind. Similar manias took place in Switzerland, Germany and Holland, though few were as large—or deadly—like the one triggered in 1518.

Uncontrollable dance has a bewitching effect on those who contemplate it.

“Regardless of the actual facts, the tale continues to grip our imagination: a lone figure who sparks a mass movement; a dance that is so captivating, so consuming, that it transcends individual will and physical limitation, sometimes with deadly consequences.” BBC

What tune are you dancing to?

Awkward AYA

Gov't Issues Warning After Viral Video Of Cambodian Women Playing With Rare ‘Penis Plants’

Not our Government

The Cambodian government

The Cambodian government has urged people to stop picking ‘penis plants.’

The country’s environment ministry is taking action to prevent people from picking the phallic-shaped plants in order to ensure the survival of the Nepenthes genus.

Sharing images taken from a viral video of three women picking and posing with the plants, the ministry wrote in a Facebook post: “What they are doing is wrong and please don’t do it again in the future.

The AYA is produced by Newsletter Editor the Solanale.

Something we missed? solanalepoetry@gmail.com 

Issues? Email us: solanalepoetry@gmail.com