Kenya to Revive Some Tax Measures From Abolished Finance Bill
Kenya’s finance ministry is working to bring back some of the tax measures that the nation’s lawmakers were forced to abandon after weeks of deadly protests.
The taxes that formed part of the Finance Bill 2024 and aimed to raise about 344 billion shillings ($2.7 billion) in the current fiscal year were scrapped after the demonstrations led to the deaths of more than 61 people and forced President William Ruto to sack his entire cabinet, including then Treasury Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u.
“Our team is already working on some of those proposals that were in the Finance Bill 2024, which we can now put together and take back to parliament, not as a Finance Bill, but as other proposals,” new treasury head, John Mbadi, said Monday as he took over from Ndung’u. “We will do extensive public participation because we don’t want to be blamed again, to be accused of introducing things that are insensitive without considering the plight and concerns of Kenyans.”
Some of the proposed taxes had included increasing levies on essentials such as bread and diapers. The axed bill had been the second since Ruto came to power in 2022. The first one introduced a contentious housing tax, doubled value-added tax on fuel and hiked the rate for the top salary-tax band to 35%.
An appellate court last month quashed those taxes, saying the measures were unconstitutional.
