By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Kenya will not increase existing taxes or introduce new ones in the 2025/2026 budget proposals, the finance minister says, following deadly anti-government demonstrations that rocked the East African country last year when the government attempted to raise revenue through taxes.
In the youth-led protests of June 2024, at least 50 people were reported dead in confrontations with security forces, forcing President William Ruto to withdraw the tax hike worth 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion), already approved by parliament.
According to the Finance Minister, John Mbadi, “the finance bill doesn’t have to always adjust tax rates upwards.”
“The finance bill of this year is more on tax administration and trying to seal the loopholes and also make tax collection efficient,” he said at a televised meeting on Tuesday.
The government has sent a finance bill, which is usually the government’s vehicle for amending laws to maximise revenue collection, to parliament for approval.
It is a key step towards the 2025/26 budget presentation expected next month.
It has also sent spending proposals, which set total expenditure at about 4 trillion shillings, to the National Assembly for debate and passage, including a budget deficit of 4.5% of GDP.
“There are no new major tax measures,” Mbadi said, adding that this year’s finance bill is targeting extra revenue of 25–30 billion shillings.
Critics have raised concerns about a proposal in the tax bill that, if passed by parliament, will allow the tax authority to access financial information belonging to businesses and individuals, helping it detect any tax evasion.
Mbadi defended the proposal, saying many wealthy people do not pay their fair share of taxes and hide behind legal provisions that bar authorities from accessing certain data.
“There are so many people out there operating big bank accounts and they cannot pay tax simply because they are protected by these kinds of mischievous laws,” he said.
