Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has denied reports that the government has imposed Value Added Tax (VAT) on essential commodities such as bread, milk, and maize flour in the 2025 Finance Bill.
Speaking during a town hall meeting in Kibera, Nairobi, Mbadi termed the claims as propaganda that had reportedly been manufactured by the Opposition to achieve selfish ends.
Mbadi asserted that none of the essential commodities were listed for taxation in the new Finance Bill that is currently before the National Assembly.
“Unfortunately, you are addressing a propaganda Finance Bill, not the one that in before the National Assembly. In the Finance Bill before the National Assembly, there is no provision in the bill where VAT is applied to bread, milk, or unga,” Mbadi stated.
“That bill that is being talked about on social media is not my bill; it is a bill that is manufactured by the opposition,” he added.
He added that reports of the government increasing the VAT to 18 per cent from the current 16 per cent were false.
“There is no time that the government of Kenya has thought of increasing VAT from 16% to 18%. So I wanted to just assure you,” he said.
Mbadi also touched on reports that the government was intending to tax neonatal care and newborn babies, which he again dismissed as untrue. He noted that this was all being done in the spirit of propaganda with the intention to mislead Kenyans.
His clarification came amidst growing disquiet over the rumoured additions to the 2025 Finance Bill. Many Kenyans had called for clarification even as murmurs of protests, such as those witnessed last year, gathered steam.
In the 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests, Kenyans took to the streets over the imposition of taxes, which, despite resistance from citizens, were still passed by lawmakers in Parliament.
Drawing from these events, Mbadi called upon Kenyans to take their time to go through the new Finance Bill so as not to fall prey to misinformation attempts.
“I want to just plead with you, and that is why sometimes I ask myself, we are all Kenyans. This country belongs to us. Even if we want to make the government look bad, let us have facts. Let us not peddle propaganda just to create distortion,” he said.
