By Judy Maina judy.maina@alleastafrica.com
NAIROBI, Kenya — In a dramatic reversal from its initial proposal, the Kenyan government on Wednesday announced a substantial reduction in its controversial 2025 Finance Bill, slashing proposed new taxes by more than 90 percent following months of mounting public pressure and youth-led unrest.
The bill, which initially sought to raise 346 billion Kenyan shillings (approximately $2.6 billion) in additional revenue, will now target just 30 billion shillings ($225 million), according to senior officials in the National Treasury.
The announcement came ahead of the national budget presentation scheduled later today in Parliament.
The decision reflects the growing influence of Kenya’s young, digital-savvy electorate, whose mobilization last year against the 2024 budget sparked nationwide protests that turned deadly.
The demonstrations, organized primarily through social media platforms by Gen-Z activists, denounced rising living costs, opaque fiscal planning, and aggressive tax expansion.
“This year’s process was shaped by the lessons of 2024,” said Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi in a televised address.
“We chose dialogue over imposition, prudence over pressure.”
The Finance Ministry said it dropped key tax proposals that had sparked public outrage, including planned hikes on excise duties affecting fuel, mobile money transactions, and internet data—levies that would have disproportionately affected urban youth and low-income households.
Public finance experts say the sharp U-turn marks a rare concession by the Ruto administration, which has come under growing criticism for fiscal overreach amid deepening economic pain.
With inflation hovering at 8.9 percent and unemployment still in the double digits, Kenyan households have been battered by high costs and erratic service delivery.
“It’s not just about the numbers,” said Roseline Nduta, a budget policy researcher at the Institute of Economic Affairs in Nairobi.
“This is about public trust—and it’s been eroded. The government realized it couldn’t risk another street revolt.”
The pared-down Finance Bill now aims to focus on broadening the tax base through improved compliance, digitization of revenue collection, and curbing leakages, rather than introducing fresh levies.
The revised draft will be tabled for debate in Parliament alongside the KSh 4.2 trillion ($31.5 billion) national budget later today.
Critics, however, remain cautious. Some activists warn that while the rollback is welcome, systemic fiscal accountability remains elusive.
“They gave us a retreat, not a reform,” said Abdi Maloba, a youth organizer in Kisumu. “We’ve seen this before—delay, disguise, then push again when attention fades.”
Still, many Kenyans view the decision as a rare victory for civic resistance in a political environment often marked by top-down governance.
“This is our moment,” tweeted one protest leader, who uses the handle @TaxRevolt254. “They didn’t hear us last year. Now they’ve had to listen.”
The question now is whether the recalibrated bill will be enough to stabilize Kenya’s fragile social contract—or whether new fault lines are already forming beneath the surface.
