- Seven in 10 Kenyans “agreed” (46%) or “strongly agreed” (25%) that tax authorities always have a right to make people pay taxes.
- Two-thirds (66%) of citizens said ordinary people are overtaxed, whereas nearly half (47%) felt that the rich pay too little tax.
- Only 42% of respondents said they trust the KRA “somewhat” or “a lot.” ▪ Four in 10 (39%) said “most” or “all” tax officials are corrupt, while a further 47% suspected that “some of them” are.
- Large majorities of Kenyans reported difficulty in finding out what taxes and fees they are supposed to pay (75%) and in determining how the government uses taxpayer revenue (88%).
- Fewer than half (48%) said the government generally uses taxes for citizens’ well being.
- While more than four in 10 Kenyans (44%) supported paying higher taxes in exchange for more government services, half (50%) said they would prefer lower taxes with fewer services.
- But a majority (58%) of citizens favoured raising taxes to fund programmes to help the youth.
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, has enjoyed significant economic growth over the past two decades, contributing to increased tax revenues (World Bank, 2023; Kisa, 2025). Since the establishment of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in 1995, Kenya has also strengthened its tax system through measures such as the VAT Act (2013) to streamline value added tax policies and the Tax Procedures Act (2015) to simplify tax compliance (Ouma, 2019).
In 2023, the government sought to introduce new taxes, including a housing levy first proposed in 2018, via the Finance Bill, which sparked widespread public debate (BBC, 2019; Grant Thornton, 2023). In June 2024, further proposed tax hikes and fees on a variety of everyday essentials and services sparked massive and fast-spreading protests that included the storming and burning of Parliament and dozens of deaths at the hands of the police (Ioanes, 2024; Muhumuza, 2024).
While the government argued that the revenues were needed to pay interest on public debt, lower the budget deficit, and fund government expenditures, a growing number of Kenyans made it clear that they were fed up with inflation, high unemployment, and official corruption and governance issues. The so-called “Gen Z” protests, led as they were by a large youth contingent, were spurred by the cost-of-living crisis, the high cost of doing business, and rising taxes (Robi, 2024; Lynch, 2024).
As the protests escalated and pressure mounted from across the country, President William Ruto announced the withdrawal of the Finance Bill and, soon thereafter, the reconstitution of his cabinet. Despite the withdrawal of the proposed levies, the Gen Z protests continued to gather momentum, which led the government to deploy the Kenya Defence Forces alongside the police. Escalating violence resulted in a surge of fatalities and injuries, numerous arrests, abductions, forced disappearances, and extensive property destruction (Lynch, 2024).
As the political fallout of the crisis continues, this dispatch takes a step back to examine the underlying attitudes of ordinary Kenyans toward taxation. Based on a 2019 Afrobarometer special survey module on taxation, its findings do not reflect possible attitude changes in response to the 2024 crisis, but they may serve as a reference point for policy makers and planners facing new political and economic realities.
Afrobarometer survey findings show that while seven in 10 Kenyans considered tax enforcement to be legitimate, fewer than half trusted the KRA. And four in 10 perceived widespread corruption among tax officials.
Majorities struggled to identify which taxes to pay and to understand how the government utilises the revenue generated from citizens’ taxes.
Most believed that ordinary citizens pay too much tax, and fewer than half would endorse higher taxes in exchange for more government services.
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