Experts warn Kenya’s forthcoming 2025/26 budget risks plunging an additional two million citizens into poverty through proposed tax hikes and subsidy cuts, compounding existing pressures from a 16.5 per cent inflation rate.

The Tax Justice Network estimates the Finance Bill’s 18 per cent VAT expansion on basic goods could erase eight per cent of purchasing power for low-income households.

Economists and the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) now say the budget proposals being taken through parliament will deepen the divide with rising taxes, stagnant wages, and neglect of critical sectors like agriculture. PBO warns that it will leave vulnerable families with even less hope for a better future.