By | East Africa Correspondent
Two years later, Kenya finds itself standing at a hauntingly familiar crossroads. Today, May 25, 2026, marks the deadline for public participation on the Finance Bill 2026, the government’s latest set of proposed tax measures for the 2026/27 fiscal year. And the warning signs are flashing red once more.
On the morning of June 25, 2024, something unprecedented happened in East Africa. Thousands of young Kenyans, largely coordinated through social media and carrying no placards from political parties, stormed the Kenyan Parliament in Nairobi. They were not acting on behalf of any opposition leader or trade union. They were acting on behalf of themselves, and they were furious about taxes. By the time the dust settled, 50 people were dead, 230 had been injured, and President William Ruto had been forced to veto his own Finance Bill. The parliament building had been set ablaze.
The scars of 2024 never fully healed. Rather than ushering in a new era of accountability and fiscal restraint, the period following the Finance Bill 2024’s withdrawal saw continued economic hardship, rising debt, and a political establishment that many Kenyans felt had not fundamentally changed. By June 2025, the streets erupted again, this time sparked by the death of Albert Omondi Ojwang, a 31-year-old blogger and teacher found dead in police custody. Those protests, equally driven by the unresolved grievances of 2024, resulted in 65 deaths, over 553 injuries, and more than 1,500 arrests before eventually winding down in July 2025.
The ghost of those protests now looms over every clause of the Finance Bill 2026. As one commentary in the Business Daily put it, no debate on taxation, governance, or public trust can be complete without Kenyans referring to the 2024 protests. The political memory is not just emotional; it is a measurable restraint on the government. Legal analysts at Bowmans note that, unlike its 2024 predecessor, the Finance Bill 2026 contains fewer tax increase proposals, something they attribute partly to the government’s awareness of public sensitivity ahead of next year’s general elections.
Despite being comparatively leaner than the 2024 bill, Finance Bill 2026 still contains provisions that have set off alarm bells across civil society, employer federations, and ordinary citizens. The most inflammatory is a proposal to raise excise duty on mobile phones from 10% to 25%. In a country where young people have built entire livelihoods through content creation, gig platforms, cryptocurrency trading, and digital freelancing, because formal employment remains scarce, such a measure strikes at the very tools of survival.
The proposal also includes changes to VAT classification, shifting electric mobility products, solar batteries, and animal feed inputs from zero-rated to exempt status. Analysts warn this technical shift could increase production costs across multiple sectors, hitting both businesses and consumers.
Perhaps most alarming to civil liberties advocates is a clause that would grant the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) the power to access citizens’ personal data without their consent. Critics argue this represents a dangerous overreach that sets a troubling precedent for state surveillance under the guise of tax compliance.
Piling onto these concerns is Kenya’s towering debt burden. According to the Institute for Social Accountability, Kenya’s total public debt has now hit Ksh. 12.84 trillion, with domestic debt alone standing at Ksh. 7.07 trillion. “When will we cut our cloth according to our size? Why are we living beyond our means?” demanded TISA Executive Director Diana Gichengo, capturing the exasperation felt by millions of Kenyans who see tax increases without corresponding accountability for how existing revenues are spent.
The resistance to Finance Bill 2026 is broader and more organized than it was in 2024. The civil society coalition Okoa Uchumi, backed by 28 organisations under the wider Okoa Kenya campaign, has called the bill “punitive” and is demanding wholesale rejection of its most controversial clauses. The Federation of Kenya Employers has filed formal objections, with its Executive Director Jacqueline Mugo stating bluntly: “Kenyans are already overtaxed.”
In a particularly notable development, civic activists have launched a Citizen Memorandum Builder, a digital tool developed with legal analysis by lawyer Kyalo Mwaki and policy analysis by the Okoa Uchumi Coalition. The tool allows any Kenyan to browse the bill’s clauses, categorized into those that should be deleted, amended, or accepted, select their positions, and automatically generate a formal memorandum addressed directly to the Finance and National Planning Committee and the Clerk of the National Assembly. The deadline for these submissions is today. It is a sign of a maturing protest movement, one that has learned to fight not only on the streets, but inside the system itself.
Even the banking sector has weighed in constructively. The Kenya Bankers Association has argued for a uniform 5% reduction in PAYE across all income bands, making the economic case that real incomes have declined by between 10.7% and 12% over five years. Such a cut, they argue, would inject Ksh. 28.1 billion into the economy, create over 36,000 jobs annually, and paradoxically generate more tax revenue by expanding overall economic activity.
The language from lobby groups has gone beyond polite memoranda. Okoa Uchumi and allied organizations have issued an unambiguous warning: if Parliament fails to amend the bill’s most contentious proposals, they will pursue legal action and they will return to the streets. “We will go to court and return to the streets,” declared one coalition spokesperson, in words that carry particular weight given what returning to the streets has meant in Kenya in recent years.
The government, for its part, appears to be attempting damage control. National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi took to the airwaves on May 25 to urge political leaders to stop “spreading propaganda and misinformation” about the bill, singling out opposition figure Kalonzo Musyoka for what he described as irresponsible fearmongering. He warned against “whipping public emotions,” saying such conduct “undermines constructive national discourse.” Whether this posture will reassure a skeptical public or further inflame it remains to be seen.
Kenya is at an inflection point. Parliament must now digest thousands of public submissions, deliberate on the clauses, and decide whether to amend, retain, or remove the most contested provisions before forwarding the bill to President Ruto for assent. The International Monetary Fund is watching closely, as Kenya’s fiscal reforms are tied to an ongoing lending programme requiring the country to narrow its budget deficit and stabilize debt levels.
But the IMF is not the only one watching. Millions of young Kenyans, the same generation that stormed parliament in 2024 and filled Nairobi’s streets in 2025, are watching too. They have demonstrated that they are willing to pay a price, including their lives, to be heard. They have also demonstrated, through tools like the Citizen Memorandum Builder, that they are willing to engage democracy through its own mechanisms.
Whether Kenya’s Parliament responds in kind, or once again tests the patience of a people who have already shown the limits of their tolerance, will determine not just the fate of the Finance Bill 2026 but the temperature of the streets in the weeks ahead.
