KANYADUDI: Finance Bill 2026 must be debated, not demonised

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi on Monday, May 11, published a schedule for public participation to validate the Finance Bill 2026-27. The Bill proposes a Sh4.8 trillion budget. The schedule outlines the dates and venues for these events across the counties and eventually in Nairobi.

Public participation is the process through which organisations and governments involve individuals, stakeholders and communities in decision-making to influence outcomes that affect their lives.

It is a fundamental democratic right that allows citizens to provide input on policies, projects and laws, thereby ensuring transparency and accountability.

The main objective is to ensure that community concerns and values are incorporated into final decisions. Its core principles include sharing information, consulting the public, collaborating and empowering citizens in decision-making.

It is a process, not merely an event and may involve attending public hearings, signing petitions, responding to surveys or engaging in public discussions.

However, before the ink on the Gazette Notice has even dried, drumbeats against the Bill are already growing louder. The antagonists are seeking to capitalise on the upheavals of the 2024 Gen Z revolts to make political statements.

What may ultimately be lost in the process is the value of public input into a constitutional government duty. Political and civil society activists may score short-term political points without advancing any strategic national development agenda.

Kenyans, whether as individual citizens or through membership organisations, should take advantage of the many progressive provisions of the 2010 Constitution and undertake their civic duties more seriously.

The forums organised by the National Treasury provide an opportunity to suggest alternative approaches to resource mobilisation for national development.

The leadership of various non-state actors should be proactive in guiding objective deliberations on the published proposals. This would help champion and promote the public good.

In democratic practice, political parties and civil society organisations play a critical role in citizen sensitisation. A political party is an organised group of people who share similar political beliefs, ideologies and goals, and who seek to gain and exercise power within government by getting their candidates elected to office.

Political parties act as crucial intermediaries between citizens and the state by formulating policies and structuring political competition. They encourage public participation in democratic processes such as voting and attending public meetings.

They also support public policy formulation through manifestos and platforms that outline proposed solutions to societal problems, thereby providing voters with clear choices.

In this way, they bridge the gap between citizens and government by articulating the needs and concerns of different groups in society. By organising political options, parties ensure that citizens become active participants in shaping their future rather than passive observers of governance.

In Kenya, the political party system is divided into two broad camps. Although the country is legally multiparty, the main dichotomy is between the ruling party and the opposition.

The ruling party commands the majority in Parliament, while the opposition comprises the minority together with parties that are not in coalition or association with the ruling side.

The ruling party, in Kenya’s case the United Democratic Alliance, must scrutinise the proposed Finance Bill to ensure that the budget aligns with its development agenda.

The party made promises to citizens during the 2022 general election campaign and the current government development strategy is guided by the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

Those pledges can only be implemented through public financing. Public financing, in turn, can only be achieved through the appropriation of public funds generated by taxes and public debt.

The government, through the National Treasury, proposes revenue generation strategies that must be approved by Parliament. Before Parliament considers the proposals, the law requires that the public first provide its input.

The debate in Parliament will be led by the Majority side, with responses from the opposition. The opposition, as led by the Minority side, should be keenly interested in public participation to ensure that the proposed fiscal policy serves the public good rather than exclusive partisan interests.

At the public forums and on the floor of Parliament, the opposition should ensure that the ruling party does not pursue strategies that promote skewed allocation of national resources.

By advancing justifiable grounds while placing public interest at the forefront, political parties can strike a balance that results in a sustainable and balanced budget. Other state organs, constitutional commissions and ministries must also continue using these events to justify and rationalise their budget proposals.

Civil society organisations are non-governmental, non-profit and voluntary entities that operate independently from the state and the market to serve social, cultural or humanitarian goals. They act as voices for marginalised communities and advocate for causes such as human rights, environmental protection and policy change.

They also serve as watchdogs for accountability, provide essential community services and advocate for rights through NGOs, unions and faith-based organisations.

CSOs promote public participation in democratic processes by encouraging citizens to become involved in local planning and decision-making. They achieve this by monitoring government actions, policies and expenditures to ensure accountability, transparency and the protection of human rights.

Most significantly, CSOs often contribute to the development of national policies by providing evidence-based research, expertise and field-level perspectives.

They should therefore leverage these strengths and actively engage in the planned public participation events. In doing so, they would be better positioned to influence the eventual Bill that will be presented to Parliament for approval. This would be a far more constructive strategy than organising overt or covert activities aimed at sabotaging the budget process.

As key national stakeholders, CSOs have a crucial role in fostering trust, cooperation and community solidarity, thereby serving as an important pillar of social infrastructure.

Historically, one of the major disincentives to public participation has been the reluctance of lead agencies to incorporate divergent opinions. Since the 2010 Constitution requires every major government decision to undergo this process, state agencies often conduct the exercise as a routine obligation.

This has made the public skeptical about both the sincerity and usefulness of the process. Consequently, many public participation events on major decisions are largely ignored by citizens. This is counterproductive for both government and the public.

CS Mbadi broke with tradition and set a precedent during his first national budget preparation last year. He spearheaded the public participation process by personally engaging informal civic movements such as Bunge la Mwananchi. He should therefore deepen that engagement this time by intensifying and expanding the scope of public participation.

While presenting the proposed fiscal policy, he indicated that some provisions, including the taxation of second-hand clothes, were informed by stakeholder responses. While sectoral interests should certainly be considered, the overarching national interest must prevail.

Every sector has two sides: suppliers and consumers. Each side makes a strategic contribution to national development and therefore deserves both promotion and protection.

The National Treasury must therefore avoid treating the current public participation exercise as a public relations campaign or merely a constitutional box-ticking exercise. Similarly, the political opposition and civil society must discard cynicism and avoid leading the public into pessimism.

Instead, they should inspire nationalistic fervour and promote constructive engagement among all stakeholders for the benefit of citizens. Calls for public protests against proposals that have not yet been discussed can only amount to incitement to unnecessary civil disobedience.

Every stakeholder must therefore play their respective role responsibly.