Parliament can redeem its image by proving it isn't part of the Executive

The 2025/26 budget-making process entered into a critical stage this week. Under the Public Finance Management laws, the executive must submit to the National Assembly Budget Estimates and the Finance Bill by April 30.

A dispatch from the Cabinet this week confirms that the top executive organ of the State formally adopted the two documents, thus clearing the way for the legislature to consider and approve them with or without amendments.

About this time last year, this column, through an open letter to Parliament, warned MPs that their loyalty to the people will be tested to the limits.

Looking back, tensions both at the executive and legislature are palpable given the people’s revolt against the Finance Bill 2024.

Formally, we are back to that stage of the year when the Budget Appropriation and Finance committees of the National Assembly must engage the people over the budget and revenue-raising measures by the government.

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What nobody can predict with certainty at this point is whether we are going to witness a replay of last year’s protests over the Finance Bill . Even before the official presentation of the executive proposals were made public, there have been several conspiracy theories circulating on social media platforms over supposed taxes the government seeks to introduce in Finance Bill, 2025.

Now that the Finance Bill, 2025, has been made public, there seems to be no such new tax proposals.

Implicitly, the conspiracies of impending new taxes would appear to have been a veiled threat to policy make Treasury mandarins, presumed to be arrogant and aloof to the public suffering on their taxes seems to have received the message loud and clear.

Interestingly, one of the emerging big critiques of the waheshimiwa and the government side in Parliament is the immediate former chair of the Budget Appropriation Committee, Ndindi Nyoro.

In recent public comments, the legislator for Kiharu Constituency has incorrectly insinuated that Parliament prepares the budget. That notwithstanding, he raises fundamental questions about the things that happens in the shadows of Parliament during the budget making process.

From an economic point of view, the markets would treat his remarks as insider information, which is critical in analysing and understanding government budgets.

Within our Constitutional order, legislative authority is derived from the people and vested and exercised by Parliament under Article 94(1). Further, Article 94(2) declares that Parliament manifests the diversity of the nation, represents the will of the people, and exercises its sovereignty.

Thus, if we removed the legal jargon, the drafters of our Constitution never contemplated that MPs would be an extension of the Executive branch of government in the conduct of their business.

Therefore, when Parliament considers the Budget Estimates and revenue-raising measures proposed by the executive, they must be guided by the best interests of Kenyans.

That is despite the majority and minority sides in the House that may have divergent views of any government agenda tabled before the House. Article 201 demands a mandatory public participation during the budget-making process.

In fact, the requirement to submit the Budget Estimates and Finance Bill by end of April was designed to give elected representatives a chance to weigh in on executive proposals at the sectoral committees and engage public directly, before the final estimates are formally tabled for adoption.

Unfortunately, the conduct of the majority side in the House during the past two budget cycles has created the impression that they were an extension on the executive, leading to a deadly confrontation with young Kenyans.

The submission of the budget estimates to the house could not come at a worse time than coinciding with the release of a BBC documentary, Blood Parliament, that documents the deadly confrontation during the Finance Bill 2024.

At the time of writing this article, the YouTube video had 4,801,825 views, 25,834 comments and 197,000 likes. This despite the government ban on the airing of the documentary in the country.

To avert another disaster like it was last year, the National Assembly must raise from partisan political interests of the ruling class and address the broader issues confronting ordinary citizens.

At the macroeconomic level, public budgets are a powerful tool for allocating resources, influencing fiscal policy and supporting economic stability and growth. As indicated from the Cabinet dispatch released on the adoption of the two documents, the Executive seeks to cut spending, reduce the fiscal deficit and assure debt sustainability

However, from the experience of the past two years of the Kenya Kwanza administration, such proposals have only been selectively implemented for certain programmes and arms of government.

Preferential treatment applies to select public agencies leading with the Presidency and Parliament itself that end up receiving more or keep their approved budget in full during supplementary estimates. This practice provides the impression that there are sacred cows within the ranks of government and sends the wrong signals on the sincerity of austerity measures that the President keeps on talking about.

In the practice of democracy, the role of Parliament in public budgets is to approve them, scrutinize their execution and ensure responsible use of public funds. From this understanding, three priorities must inform public discourse over the budget proceedings for 2025/26.

First priority is that the budget must seek ease cost of living and inject cash into circulation. Two strategic options at the disposal of Parliament is to recommend targeted tax reliefs for households and economic stimulus packages targeting local communities. If there is something that we must have learned from Covid-19, it is that tax reliefs and well thought out stimulus programmes do not hurt government revenues or programmes.

Instead, they enhance government revenue collections, protect vulnerable citizens within our communities and preserve economic activities that people do for a livelihood.

Second priority is to protect businesses and investments. On social media this week, there has been two trending articles, one detailing the death of entrepreneurship in the country due to official corruption and another from a Vietnamese investor explaining his encounter with top officials in the country with big talk but zero execution.

While this column may not independently verify the authenticity of the sources, the articles provide a factual depiction of the country’s business environment.

This column has consistently argued that it is absurd for the government to kill local businesses, stifle investments and then at the same time claim to engage other countries to provide employment opportunities for her citizens. Parliament must demand tangible efforts to restructure taxes through a longer term revenue policy, abolish the annual Finance Act and enforce tax predictability to allow businesses plan. Besides, as the government phases out cash-based accounting system, Parliament must seek specific budgetary allocations to clear outstanding pending bills of the government. This would provide relief on working capital for businesses.

Finally, Parliament must stamp its authority to ensure debt sustainability, compliance with approved debt ceilings and clear the cloud on odious debts.