Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi's Sh4.8 trillion budget on Thursday elicited mixed reactions from Members of Parliament, exposing deep political divisions over the government's spending priorities and economic strategy.
While lawmakers allied to President William Ruto's administration hailed the budget as a bold blueprint for economic transformation and job creation, MPs aligned to the united opposition dismissed it claiming it fails to address the everyday struggles facing millions of Kenyans.
Presenting the budget estimates to Parliament, Mbadi outlined increased allocations to key sectors including infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and security.
He argued that the spending plan is designed to sustain economic growth while protecting vulnerable households.
Government supporters quickly rallied behind the proposals, describing them as a reflection of the administration's commitment to improving livelihoods and accelerating development across the country.
Several broad-based government MPs praised the Treasury for maintaining funding for flagship projects while avoiding the introduction of punitive taxes that had previously triggered public discontent.
Uriri MP Mark Nyamita termed the budget key in addressing inequality that has existed in the country over the years.
"CS Mbadi continues to demonstrate great effort towards equitable distribution of resources across the county departing for the skewed past. The focus on key infrastructural projects will eventually open the economy and grow the country's GDP,” Nyamita told the Star
“The revenue measures are also very modest cognizant of the tight state of the economy.”
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale lauded the intentional additional allocation towards infrastructure and the allocations in the country’s healthcare.
“The infrastructure budget has increased because we must ensure equity in development. Similarly, we need to invest heavily in our healthcare facilities and education, as these sectors are fundamental to every Kenyan market,” Duale said.
Supporters further argued that increased investments in agriculture, affordable housing, roads and social protection programmes would stimulate economic activity and cushion Kenyans from the high cost of living.
However, opposition lawmakers painted a different picture, accusing the government of failing to address the country's mounting economic challenges.
Mukurweini MP John Kaguchia said the huge deficit and debt refinancing will make delivery of key development projects impossible.
“Owing to the huge fiscal deficit and the much money committed to loan repayments it means that most of the promises given on development are not tenable since there is huge funding gap,” Kaguchia said.
“Hence it's more of a campaign deception budget.”
Speaking to the Star, Gatanga MP Edward Muriu said the continued huge allocations to State House and National Intelligence Service are unnecessary burden to taxpayers.
“The budget failed at two Levels. The Sh1.4.8 trillion budgets with deficit of Sh1.4T means more debt and more taxes to already burdened Kenyans with taxes,” Muriu told the Star.
“Most of the money is in the State House, Interior, Defence, NIS and confidential votes which zero value to common Mwanchi.”
Former Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Ndindi Nyoro while raising concerns about the big budget deficit noted that most of the projects are campaign-focused.
“Every time before elections, we see an escalating deficit. The government is trying to prioritise political and campaign projects. The money comes as confidential funds or you'll see an office getting a huge increment in budget,” the Kiharu MP said.
Earlier, Mbadi announced that the government will introduce a new Planning Bill in 2026 aimed at strengthening Kenya’s national planning and budgeting framework.
Speaking ahead of the 2026-27 Budget Statement in Parliament on Thursday, Mbadi said the proposed law will address a critical gap in the country’s public finance architecture, formal legal structures governing national planning.
He said that while Kenya already has legislation on public finance management, procurement, and asset management, there is currently no standalone law guiding national planning.
“I have been a proponent of proper planning; the problem we have in our budget process is that we are not making plans to budget. We have laws governing public finance management, we have laws governing procurement, we have laws guiding asset management, but we don't have any law on national planning,” he said.
Mbadi noted that the absence of a dedicated planning framework has weakened coordination between policy priorities and budget implementation, leading to inefficiencies in resource allocation.
“That is a law that we are going to introduce this year so that we can have a proper plan. If you don’t plan well, you cannot have a good budget and a good financial plan,” he said.
The proposed Planning Bill 2026 is expected to formalise how national development priorities are set, aligned and monitored across government institutions, to improve discipline in public spending and ensure better alignment between long-term policy goals and annual budgets.
The Kenya Association of Manufacturers said there were many positives in the budget but hoped the executive will review some proposals especially on tax administration
But the manufacturer's lobby praised the government for earmarking billions of shillings for infrastructure development.
The infrastructure focusing on roads, energy projects and transport networks it said, would improve connectivity, lower the cost of doing business and enhance Kenya’s competitiveness.
"The budget underscores a shift towards leveraging private capital through the newly established National Infrastructure Fund, which is expected to mobilise resources for major projects while reducing reliance on public borrowing," KAM boss Tobias Alando said.
Alando however hopes that policy makers will review some proposals especially on tax administration to ease burden for businesses and households.
