In a carefully crafted move the Government of Kenya has sent out feelers ahead of unleashing the Finance Bill 2025.
The government’s strategy is to control the narrative around its latest finance bill, the annual tax plan that sparked nationwide protests last year leading to calls for the president’s resignation.
According to highly confidential sources the government is funding strategic appearances by public officials on mainstream TV and radio stations to explain the bill, town halls, and the use of social media influencers to shape messaging on platforms including X and Facebook.
This is a great departure from the strong stance adopted by President Ruto last year who was hardpressed to raise taxes to pay off external debts.
Analysts believe this approach may be effective although they warn that direct attempts at increasing tax will certainly boomerang even with Raila Odinga now doing government PR.
According to a new report by civil society coalition Missing Voices last year’s finance Bill protests fueled a 450% rise in abductions and a similar spike in extrajudicial killings.
The protests, which saw at least 50 people killed and hundreds injured, were triggered by frustration over proposals that would hike various existing taxes and introduce new ones.
While this year’s edition of the bill notably leans away from the introduction of new taxes, it still contains provisions — such as a shift on VAT — that could raise the prices of items such as drugs, motorbikes, and mobile phones, potentially fueling public discontent.
“There is a feeling within the administration that they were not prepared for the backlash when they published the bill last year,” said one senior communications official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Already government spin doctors are selling the age-old narrative that responsible citizenry pay tax.
For the majority of Kenyans who are known to file nil returns with KRA every year the message is loud and clear.
“illicit refunds are worse than evasion since they are theft disguised as compliance,” the spin doctors are saying.
According to research conducted by Transparency International, “where laws exist without timelines, impunity flourishes.”
The new finance bill proposes time-bound processes for refunds and taxation processes in order to speed up resolution and to reduces backlog.
There are also new enforcement penalties for non-filers and defaulters. This will not only help to improve tax compliance culture but also lead to higher collection of revenue, thus deterring the government from increasing public debt through borrowing.
For example, some people upon being forced to pay taxes end up appealing at the KRA tax appeals tribunal. Since a simple lodging of an appeal is equal to a stay of execution of the previous judgment, over KES 170 Billion hasn’t been collected so far.
This money would have been more useful in bringing development to Kenyans such as roads, SHA etc, yet some people are using the court system to evade their obligations.
The new bill proposes that unless one has an express stay order from a court of law, they are compelled to pay the amounts due to the taxman.
Appeals must henceforth be accompanied by payment of tax due in order to discourage frivolous litigation since justice delayed is revenue denied.
Legal bottlenecks cost the state more than unpaid taxes. Kenya has lost its competitive advantage in aircraft repairs to our neighbors due to high taxes.
The bill proposes the exemption of aircraft repair spare parts, in order to boosts Kenya’s ambition to be an African aviation hub. This alone will help create over 3,000 jobs for our aviation technicians and engineers.
“With a known tax critic at the helm of the Treasury, it is hoped the budget will be people-centric
On and on goes the spin doctors in trying to highlight some mundane facet of the Finance Bill 2025.
All in all, the designers of the Bill have learnt that blatant increase of taxation is met with protests. They’ve used subtle economic terminology and perhaps that will also assuage egos this time round and the country will avoid the destruction and loss of life occasioned by the last Bill.
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