You're mixing issues. We are here because of exogenous event nobody could have thought would happen. We are not here because of poor fiscal or monetary policy. It appears after tax cuts - and other such not so practical ideas - gov has decided to deploy police at night the rich from the hungry poor. The western countries are deploying welfare systems - and we are not too poor to do the same. We need to start somewhere. For now, we need to tap into a contingency fund and start with slums and urban poor. I am talking direct support to poor families to buy food - I don't care about business or economy at this moment of war.
Once you understand the role of welfare systems beyond the trickle-down economics then we will progress.
People want to hear how Uhuru will support individuals (not SMES or business) - directly with food or income in these terrible times. Western countries have promised to pay their citizens 80% of income. In Kenya - we have fledging national welfare that supports hunger-stricken, old and orphaned - now is the time to expand it.
If you look above I have advocated for dealing with demand side i.e something along the lines of a rescue fund which in my humble opinion should be aimed at individuals and SMEs. The question is how to fund it? Your suggestion of taxing the rich is what doesn't make economic sense. Because there's not enough rich people to tax to get the kind of money needed. Whether its for food and shelter or to support individuals, MSE and SMEs. The only option is to gut budgets of all ministries except the absolutely essentials. Then arrange for debt extension repayment program. For the last couple of yrs. I have been indicating the danger of running crazy budget deficits of 7-9%, but you said those are western economic nonsense. Now the government has very little wiggle room to stabilize the economy.
Cutting taxes which are paid by informal sector means those goods and services become cheaper hence more affordable. This cushions the poor and simultaneously acts as stimulus for the economy(supply side ).
Once you feed people you think somehow their jobs will just reappear? You need to do both, feed people who are going hungry while supporting the businesses they derive their incomes from either as owners or as employees. The government can't feed people indefinitely while the economy is collapsing. Mind you the poor pay taxes directly , so if they aren't working soon government will grind to a halt. Also even big corporations like safaricom and equity generate their revenue from the "informal sector" . The MSE, SME and individuals need to remain in operation otherwise we're looking into the abyss. The taxes that informal sector pays mainly vat and exercise taxes need to be slashed to cushion them while also creating a fund that informal sector can borrow from at zero rate to stay afloat.
