Albert Ojwang’ took over Kenya. The Homa Bay teacher and social media influencer’s death on Sunday, June 9, at the Nairobi Central police station pushed all important national news from the headlines.
Thursday, June 12, was budget reading day. But an angry country didn’t seem to care.
“I was in Parliament explaining the budget to the nation, yet many Kenyans weren’t paying attention,” read a quote supposedly by Treasury CS John Mbadi, posted on Facebook by Channel 7 News and Kipsigis News. “I am sad to see the media focusing on other matters.”
In a typical year, the budget would have dominated headlines, prime-time bulletins and political talk shows for days. But this year, Kenyans may have missed at least two major policy shifts that could affect their wallets, rights, and mobile money.
1. Are budgets credible any more?
The Standard, on June 13, blew the whistle on what looks like the Treasury quietly shifting the goalposts.
The article, titled “From Sh4.24tr to Sh4.29tr: Mbadi moving numbers raise eyebrows” by Macharia Kamau, reported that the 2025-26 budget mysteriously grew by Sh50 billion between April and June — with no clear explanation.
Initially tabled at Sh4.24 trillion, the figure ballooned to Sh4.29 trillion on budget day. Translation: what’s read in June often isn’t what’s lived by December.
The government’s habit of introducing multiple supplementary budgets — three in just one financial year — has become a national joke. “We are in a pit as a country,” said economist James Nyoro in the article. “And instead of starting to think of coming out of that pit, we are digging deeper.”
2. KRA wants to know your M-Pesa balance
Mbadi’s Finance Bill 2025 wants something even more eyebrow-raising — access to your financial data.
Citizen Digital highlighted this story on June 11, under the headline “Can’t trust Kenyans to pay taxes at will: Mbadi defends giving KRA access to customer data”, written by Dennis Musau.
The proposed change would delete a clause in the Tax Procedures Act that currently prevents KRA from peeking into customer data. If passed, it would allow the taxman access to Kenyans’ mobile money and bank transactions — all in a bid to catch tax cheats.
“If you just let Kenyans pay taxes at will without being followed up, they will not,” Mbadi said.
In other words, the CS doesn’t trust even himself to pay taxes voluntarily. And that, it seems, justifies surveillance.
