County revenue policies and gaps in gender-sensitive planning are placing a disproportionate burden on women-owned businesses, a new report has found.
A consolidated technical report assessing gender-responsive planning, budgeting and revenue warns that charges that appear neutral may have unequal effects on businesses depending on their size, access to finance and ownership of assets.
It focusses on Embu, Nakuru, Meru, Machakos and Kirinyaga counties.
The report identifies high fixed charges, complex licensing procedures and compliance costs as potential barriers for smaller enterprises, particularly those owned by women, who may have less working capital and limited access to formal credit.
“High fixed charges, complex licensing procedures and compliance costs may have a greater effect on smaller enterprises than on larger businesses,” the report states in its assessment of Machakos county.
It argues that counties need to examine who bears the cost of revenue measures rather than assume that uniform charges affect all businesses equally.
The report notes that the same licence fee could represent a relatively small operating expense for a large enterprise but consume a significant share of working capital for a small women-owned business.
Property rates could also interact with gender disparities in land ownership and access to assets that can be used as collateral to secure loans.
In Embu, the report found that the county’s revenue administration framework did not systematically require sex-disaggregated taxpayer data or gender-impact assessments of major revenue measures.
The gaps limited the county’s ability to determine whether particular taxes, fees and charges were placing a heavier burden on women.
The assessment identifies revenue streams, including trading licences, market charges, property rates, advertising, building approvals and administrative fees, as areas where the distributional impact of charges warrants scrutiny.
In Nakuru, the report recommends incorporating gender analysis into the development and revision of major revenue measures, including tariffs, licences, property rates, market charges and sector-specific levies.
It also points to possible implications of zoning and parking charges for women traders and businesses operating in transport-related activities.
The report recommends that counties assess the categories of businesses affected by proposed fees, the proportion owned by women, the compliance burden and the likely implications for business formalisation before introducing new charges or increasing existing ones.
It further calls for counties to progressively collect revenue data disaggregated by sex, enterprise ownership, location, revenue stream, payment channel, arrears and compliance.
The report argues that broadening the compliant business base could improve county collections, while creating a more supportive environment for women entrepreneurs.
Its recommendations come as counties seek to strengthen their own-source revenue, which is critical to financing local services and development programmes.
The assessment makes a case for revenue systems that account for differences in business circumstances, warning that policies designed without sufficient evidence may overlook the costs borne by smaller enterprises.
The findings come against a backdrop of persistent gaps in women’s economic empowerment.
The index, based on the 2022 Kenya Continuous Household Survey, showed disparities across the five counties examined, with empowerment levels ranging from 37.2 per cent in Embu to 50.8 per cent in Machakos and Kirinyaga.
In Embu, the report found that 31.2 per cent of women were not employed, compared with 14 per cent of men, while only 45.4 per cent of women reported owning agricultural or non-agricultural land, either alone or jointly.
Internet use was also lower among women, at 31.9 per cent, compared with 44 per cent among men. These disparities may leave women entrepreneurs with less access to capital, assets and digital services, making fixed licence fees and other county charges harder to absorb.
