The Taxation Trap: How Revenue Policy Is Squeezing Ordinary Kenyans

The Finance Act has repeatedly introduced levies, expanded the VAT base, and raised excise duties on goods consumed disproportionately by low- and middle-income Kenyans. This episode reviews the distributional impact of recent revenue measures, compares Kenya's tax-to-GDP ratio against regional peers, and interrogates whether the current revenue strategy is raising enough money in the right places — or simply taxing consumption because it is easy to administer. We also examine the compliance burden on formal SMEs and the perverse incentives this creates.