In a calculated acknowledgement of the democratic process, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi addressed the simmering debate surrounding the United Opposition’s alternative ‘People’s Budget’.

Speaking during a TV interview on Wednesday night, July 1, 2026, Mbadi stated that the opposition was in order to present an alternative 2026/27 budget.

While he maintained his firm disdain for the fiscal document’s substance, Mbadi conceded that the coalition was well within its rights to present a counter-proposal to the government’s current spending plan.

The opposition had initially unveiled its Ksh4.3 trillion alternative budget on June 10, 2026 – a move deliberately timed for maximum political visibility, coming exactly one day before Mbadi presented the government’s Ksh4.82 trillion budget to the National Assembly.

The manoeuvre was designed to force a direct, public comparison between the state’s fiscal strategy and the coalition’s vision for the country.

During an interview on Wednesday night, Mbadi, who had previously characterised the opposition’s proposal as ‘child’s play’, struck a tone that was both dismissive of the document’s technical rigour and tolerant of the political theatre.

“The United Opposition was perfectly in order to do whatever they wanted to do and probably expected Kenyans to watch them,” Mbadi said.

“I don’t think they did anything serious in my view. What they did was simply pick my figures, remove here and there, and add here and there. That is not a budget,” he added.

Mbadi’s critique strikes at the heart of the technical divide between the National Treasury and the opposition coalition.

He accuses the opposition leaders of lacking independent economic modelling, suggesting that their document was merely a cosmetic rearrangement of government data rather than a foundational rethink of national revenue and expenditure.

For the Treasury, the opposition’s budget is viewed as a symbolic gesture rather than a viable fiscal framework.

However, Mbadi’s willingness to defend their right to the exercise signals a degree of political confidence, suggesting that the government remains unbothered by the optics of the opposition’s alternative economic narrative.