Here is your chance to help craft a citizen-friendly Finance Bill

The Finance Bill 2024 was problematic from the beginning because its content was perceived as anti-people and strongly pro-system.

Many of us threw stones at the government because experts in the field told us on various platforms, especially the media, that sections of the Bill were burdensome on essential goods and services. The government claimed it needed to raise funds to manage the national debt. Fast-forward.

The Finance Bill 2025 is out. Parliament has made a call for memoranda from the public. Concerns about hidden taxes are already in the air. Those in the know are beginning to poke holes in the Bill, exposing serious concerns that, if unattended, will lead to public discontent.

Hopefully, one major lesson the government and the people have learnt from the Finance Bill 2024 is the value of mutually benefiting, active and quality public participation leading to its presentation and deliberation in Parliament.

In the Finance 2024 Bill, the government must have conducted public participation since it is a compliance requirement. However, the nature and outcome of that participation may have been insufficient or lacked goodwill to balance public interest and government goals. We cannot afford to make the same mistake as last year. This time, we have to make public participation the first step towards preventing avoidable political confrontations and conflicts.

Why is public participation so critical in evaluating the details of the Finance Bill 2025?

First, we lament a lot about government budgeting when, in the first place, many of us do not bother to attend the public participation forums where the details of the Finance Bill are presented and discussed. We leave it to the experts in closed-door meetings. Understandably, the Finance Bill has a lot of technical financial language that makes most of us 'float'. This is precisely the platform where we need to demand a plain language explanation of the proposed budget lines' implications and so as we make our recommendations.

Second, the priority setting of government expenditures is affirmed during the public participation forums. Strong public participation during this stage means the people, who are the taxpayers, have room to contest taxes and priorities that do not reflect their wishes. Here, the people have much more control than when the Bill is discussed in Parliament.

Third, understanding how we are taxed, how national revenue is raised, where it is spent, and what informs government priorities cannot be left to technocrats or assumed to be beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. The Finance Bill 2025 presents a critical civic moment that determines the weight every Kenyan will bear once the Bill is passed in Parliament.

Fourth, public participation forums are legally protected democratic spaces where citizens interrogate policy decisions, challenge inequities, and offer alternatives. When we show up, ask hard questions, and speak truth to power, we assert that government budgeting is a shared responsibility.

Fifth, the typology of public participation, from passive informing to active citizen control, helps us discern how meaningful our involvement is. Too often, we are only informed through press releases and media snippets, without context or clarity. Sometimes, we are consulted, but our voices rarely shape the outcome. Public voice is critical in legitimising government priorities and expenditures.

Sixth, if the Finance Bill proposes new taxes on digital services, fuel, or foodstuffs, citizens have to be told not just what the figures are, but why these areas were chosen, who benefits, and what development trade-offs are being made. Fiscal policy cannot be an elite enclave insulated from the people it affects most.

Based on the experience of many Kenyans, we lose an opportunity to shape our budgeting, implementation, and oversight of government service delivery when we don’t attend public participation forums. Let us turn the page and engage with the Finance Bill 2025, guided by the many able experts available on many platforms who have not failed to be generous in breaking down the details in the document.

We must not wait for the bill to become law to express anger or disillusionment. Attending public participation forums is how we claim our space in national decision-making.

-Dr Mokua is Executive Director of Loyola Centre for Media and Communication