The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) faces an uphill task in its bid to collect upwards of Sh1.7 trillion in just seven months, following a slow start in the first five months of the current fiscal year.
From July to November 2025, KRA collected Sh909.77 billion in taxes, which was just a third of the current annual target of Sh2.63 trillion, according to the latest revenue statements from the National Treasury.
KRA, whose financial year runs from July 1 to June 30, traditionally attains its peak annual revenue collection during the last quarter of the financial year, precisely in the months leading up to and including June.
The collections by November left KRA with a task to raise Sh1.72 trillion over seven months to June when the current fiscal year ends, or else fail to hit targets for the fourth consecutive year.
The expected tax collections between December 2025 and June 2026 average Sh245.3 billion monthly, against the monthly average of Sh181.9 billion over the first five months of the fiscal year, underlining the heavy task for KRA during the second half of the fiscal year.
The current annual tax targets of Sh2.63 trillion are also a downward revision from the original figure of Sh2.76 trillion presented in the original budget, implying a realisation that the taxman may yet again not achieve revenue targets in the current fiscal year.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi last month cited a failure to realise revenues among factors expected to trigger the first supplementary budget for the current fiscal year, expected next month.
“If revenue does not perform, we’ll have to reduce the budget in line with revenue collection because we don't want to borrow more,” Mbadi said.
The CS spoke at a time the government had already missed revenues totaling Sh90 billion over the first three months of the 2025/26 fiscal year, ending September 2025. The taxman last surpassed its tax targets in the 2021/22 fiscal year when it collected Sh2.03 trillion against a target of Sh1.88 trillion.
During the subsequent years, it has struggled to collect all the taxes planned during budget formulation, often having to revise its targets downwards through the financial years.
During the last financial year, for instance, Treasury lowered revenue targets for KRA from Sh2.9 trillion to Sh2.58 trillion as it emerged that the taxman would not hit targets following withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024.
In the current fiscal year, running from July 2025 to June 2026, Treasury presented an ordinary revenue target of Sh2.76 trillion, which has so far been lowered to Sh2.63 trillion, based on Treasury’s revenue statements.
