KENYA ISTAHILI HESHIMA: HOW DARE YOU PROPOSE MORE DEBT AND TAXES WHILE WE LOSE MOST OF OUR PAST REVENUES?

Four in every ten Kenyans are poor, and many more are at risk of falling into poverty unless urgent and decisive action is taken to allocate public resources wisely and spend prudently. Their dreams of a dignified life are constantly shattered, and essential public services, particularly in agriculture, education, health, and other critical sectors, continue to deteriorate.

It is against this backdrop that we, the Okoa Uchumi Campaign, a coalition of civil society organizations advocating for prudent public finance management, have submitted our recommendations on the 2025 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and the Medium-Term Debt Strategy (MTDS) to the National Treasury, National Assembly, and the Senate. We reiterate the message in this press release. Our submissions have highlighted key concerns regarding Kenya’s growing public debt burden, fiscal deficit, and lack of transparency in budget formulation. The burden of Kenya’s fiscal position falls heavily on the citizens, with the fiscal deficit for FY 2025/26 projected at Ksh.831.0 billion (4.3% of GDP), as per the BPS 2025. However, our computation indicates the deficit could be as high as 5.1%. The government’s revenue projections are overly optimistic, increasing the risk of additional borrowing to cover shortfalls. This seriously threatens economic stability and increases the tax burden on already struggling Kenyan citizens and businesses.

Weighed by the impeding burden on the Kenyan people, the Coalition expresses profound concerns over the recent revelations in the Auditor General’s report that point to massive wastage and loss of scarce public resources. The findings of the Auditor General’s report, released on March 4, 2025, exposed critical deficiencies in the implementation of the Social Health Insurance (SHI) and Social Health Authority (SHA) initiatives, the Hustler Fund, loss and wastage to among other irregular compensation through court awards. The report also points to the suffering of Kenyan workers, including those in the civil service who can no longer take home a third of their salary. Against this background, it reiterates that our problem is not revenue but expenditure, which includes budgeted and legislative corruption. We would like to bring the following areas of concern to Kenyans as contained in the BPS and MTDS 2025; 

Download the full press statement: OUC-Press-statement-07032025.pdf (10 downloads )