National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has defended the public participation process surrounding the Finance Bill 2026 and the budget estimates, dismissing claims that Kenyans were not adequately consulted before the proposals were tabled before the National Assembly.

Speaking on a phone interview with a local TV station on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, Mbadi said the government began engaging the public as early as September 2025 and had conducted extensive consultations across several parts of the country.

“It is not true that there was not enough public participation in the budget estimates and the Finance Bill. The process for budget making started as early as September last year, and a lot of engagement has been done, including sector hearings,” Mbadi said.

The CS noted that he personally led some of the public participation forums in different counties as part of efforts to collect views from wananchi and stakeholders before finalising the proposals.

“I have personally led public participation on the budget process. I visited Migori and Kakamega. We did public participation in Kiambu, Meru, Mombasa, and Kilifi,” he stated.

According to Mbadi, the only region where the exercise was not conducted was the former North Eastern Province, but he maintained that the executive had done everything possible to ensure Kenyans were involved in shaping the budget.

“The only place we did not manage to do public participation is the former North-Eastern province. In terms of public participation, I don’t think anyone should fault the executive; we did all we could,” he added.

Mbadi accuses the opposition of spreading misleading information

In his statement, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi further accused the United Opposition of importing non-existent clauses into the 2026 Finance Bill to incite Kenyans.

While maintaining that the tax bill is designed to ease taxpayers’ burden, Mbadi says the opposition’s call for a rejection of the bill in its entirety is political and meant to mislead Kenyans, instead calling for an objective analysis of the money bill.

With tax-raising measures narrowing and the country’s borrowing edging towards the ceiling, the Treasury Cabinet secretary came out in defence of his only revenue-generating option, the Finance Bill 2026. First in his line of fire was Kalonzo Musyoka, accusing the Wiper leader and the United Opposition of importing non-existent clauses in the bill currently before Parliament.

“Can Kalonzo Musyoka tell the people of Kenya the particular clause in the Bill we submitted to Parliament, which is being discussed, where it mentions taxation on land: freehold or leasehold?” Mbadi stated.