Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi sort of gave Kenyans a solid, final assurance, saying the government will not be adding any new tax rates in the proposed Finance Bill 2026.
He said this during a public engagement at the University of Nairobi on Friday, and Mbadi made it clear that the administration has intentionally reworked its fiscal approach to put more weight on widening the tax base and improving collection efficiency, rather than stacking new financial pressure on people.
His position comes as a deliberate step away from the public anger that came with the 2024 Finance Bill discussions. “Because of the history and the experience of 2024, we took a decision that we are not going to increase tax rates for Kenyans,” Mbadi said, while also noting that the present tax levels are already feeling heavy on citizens.
So instead of pushing up rates, the government is leaning into administrative changes meant to plug loopholes and also draw non-compliant players into the tax system. Mbadi pointed out that a lot of people who actually have the ability to contribute are still outside the formal arrangement.
This leaves a rather small circle of compliant taxpayers, mainly those on formal payroll employment, to end up carrying much of the nation’s fiscal load.
The Treasury also laid down an ambitious collection target, aiming to raise Sh54 billion through these administrative moves and then add another Sh30 billion from tax amnesty programs. The idea, he explained, is to get taxpayers who have pending disagreements to settle their principal tax obligations, while steering around interest and penalties.
Mbadi further addressed concerns around the digitization of tax gathering, saying that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is really pushing away from manual, mechanical setups and toward modern digital frameworks. He mentioned, very pointedly, the low compliance level among landlords, and even though there is widespread property ownership, the rental income tax receipts are still coming in disproportionately low.
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