Lobby groups warn Finance Bill favours the rich

President William Ruto assents to three National Assembly Bills, including the Finance Bill, 2025, at State House, Nairobi. [PCS]

Several civil society groups are warning that some proposals in the Finance Bill, 2026, would increase the financial overburden of the mwananchi.

The 28 organisations under the Okoa Kenya campaign cited the proposed "dangerous" amendments to the Tax Procedure Act, which they said favour the rich and infringe on data privacy.

The groups, among them Transparency International and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, stated the Bill widens tax exemptions for the high-net-worth individuals, large asset holders and sophisticated investors.

They said if the law amendments are passed, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) would have unchecked powers to mine private citizens' data.

“The Bill ignorantly uses masculine language, discriminates against poor people who file nil returns, and targets our youth population by requiring them to file their returns way ahead of everyone,” said Diana Gichengo, executive director of Tisa Kenya.

“Through automated data matching, algorithms across platforms like e-Tims, banking records and third-party withholding tax declarations, the KRA intends to bypass voluntary self-assessment and arbitrary pre-populate individual tax liabilities."

At the same time, the lobby groups called for scrapping the government-to-government framework for petroleum importation to stabilise fuel prices.

“Recent revelations have exposed how state actors and preferred oil marketing companies manipulated supply frameworks to orchestrate artificial pressures,” the groups said.

“Worse still, the public continues to be fleeced to purchase substandard fuel with elevated sulfur levels in absolute violation of the Kenyan safety and environmental specification,”

They appealed to Kenyans to reject the state and other political provocations towards chaos and lawlessness.

“Let us voice our concerns with steadfast civility, unwavering tolerance in one another and resolute solidarity. We must not allow economic oppression to divide us along political or ethnic lines,” the group stated

Adding: “Let us fight this economic oppression with the clarity of our constitutional rights, the precision of our facts and the unstoppable force of organised, peaceful civic action.”