Kenyan politicians are against the tax authority’s request for full access to data

Kenya’s parliamentary finance committee turned down a plan to let the country’s revenue authority access all taxpayer data without any limits, citing worries about privacy and constitutional protections, according to a report released late Monday.

People were upset about the part of this year’s budget plan that was supposed to protect privacy.

It was pointed out by the committee that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) can already get to financial information with a court order, so the plan was not needed.

“In light of these existing safeguards, the committee concluded that the proposed provision is both unnecessary and potentially unconstitutional,” the report noted.

The finance minister, John Mbadi, has defended the move, saying that it will help stop tax evasion, especially by wealthy people who use the law to hide their financial information.

Mbadi could not say anything right away about the committee’s ruling.

Since 2022, when President William Ruto took office, his government has been trying to raise taxes to help pay off the country’s growing debt.

After the finance bill from last year, there were deadly protests against higher taxes. Mbadi has said that this year’s bill will not add any new taxes or raise current ones.

But the bill’s main goal is to bring in an extra 30 billion shillings ($233 million) by getting more people to pay their taxes.

The minister had said that the provision was needed so that the KRA could get access to financial information about people and businesses so that it could find people who are not paying their taxes.

Last year, protests against planned tax hikes killed over 50 people and caused Ruto to drop plans to raise 346 billion shillings in taxes. This year, the government is under pressure to avoid another unrest over revenue measures.