Makali Mulu calls for deeper scrutiny of budget, warns against blind taxation
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu has urged Parliament and fiscal policymakers to conduct deeper scrutiny of the 2025/26 budget before endorsing tax proposals in the Finance Bill, warning that continued taxation without transparent and effective spending could hurt Kenyans and cripple economic growth.
Speaking on a local media station on June 3, 2025, Mulu emphasised the need to evaluate the budget from three critical perspectives—ordinary citizens, the private sector, and government priorities—before imposing any new taxes.
“Any time you look at a finance bill as well as a budget, you should be able to look at it from three perspectives. The first perspective is: Is it friendly to ordinary citizens? The second perspective is business people, the private sector – for them, profit is the motivating factor. To the government, they have an agenda, they’re driving a political agenda so that they get re-elected,” Mulu explained.
The MP warned that an improper balance of these interests could have serious political consequences, pointing to current challenges in the education sector as an example.
“If you have a budget and it’s not funded because there’s no finance bill, then it means you won’t be able to deliver on development, you won’t be able to do your roads, health sector, or education. Currently, if you ask those in universities about the issue of capitation and lecturer strikes – if we pursue that to the end of five years, the Kenya Kwanza regime will be going home on the basis of that,” he stated.
He stressed that while the government needs resources to implement its manifesto and deliver services, this must not come at the cost of overburdening already struggling Kenyans.
“If the normal Kenyan has no money in their pockets, they are not able to buy goods and services. And if they can’t buy, then producers can’t sell. It’s a delicate balance,” he noted.
Budget analysis gaps
The legislator criticised what he termed as a growing trend where analysts and policymakers focus heavily on the Finance Bill—detailing how the government raises revenue—while neglecting to examine how that money is actually allocated and spent in the national budget.
“These guys are taking three to four weeks to look at the finance bill, but ask them how much time they have taken to look at the budget proposals. The finance bill finances the budget proposals. So if you don’t look at the proposals, then automatically funding won’t make sense,” he said.
Mulu cited several examples of inefficient public spending, including a report by the Auditor General indicating that the country paid Ksh6.7 billion in commitment fees over the last three years for development loans that were never drawn.
“That is money which has been loaned to Kenya, and we have not withdrawn the money. So if we were using our loans as expected, the Ksh6.7 billion can be reduced from the finance bill without any change,” Mulu noted.
He also pointed to a government fund with Ksh5 billion in unpaid loans due to weak recovery mechanisms, questioning the logic of allocating an additional Ksh60 billion to it this financial year.
“The question is: if money has not been paid back because there’s no proper mechanism to collect the money, do you go ahead and give that money again? If you look at the fund this year, there’s an additional allocation of about Ksh60 billion. If we say, since you did not use the funds well, we won’t give you additional resources, then the Ksh60 billion they’re asking for will be a reduction from the finance bill,” he argued.
Curbing wasteful spending
Mulu challenged budget analysts to conduct thorough reviews of all government expenditures, including presidential allocations, suggesting that billions could be saved through careful scrutiny.
“I wish these guys would take much more time to look at our budget. Look at the presidency, the office of the president – how much money has been allocated? Do we need to allocate such money to the presidency? If the answer is no, it means somebody can sit down with a toothpick and say this is not necessary. You might be able to save a billion from there. Actually, this Ksh24 billion we can easily save it from expenditure,” he concluded.
