🚨 Kenya Plans to Scrap Key Privacy Law in 2025 Finance Bill — What It Means for Your Personal Financial Data

Kenya’s Treasury has proposed a new law that could give the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) wide access to your personal and financial information—including banking transactions and mobile money data—without your consent or a court order.

This plan, included in the 2025 Finance Bill, is raising eyebrows among privacy advocates, civil society groups, and even business owners.

🔍 What’s Happening?

The 2025 Finance Bill suggests deleting Section 59A(1B) of the Tax Procedures Act. This section was only added in December 2024 and clearly protects individuals and businesses from being forced to share:

• Trade secrets

• Personal customer data

• Financial data held by companies on behalf of clients

In simple terms, it currently stops KRA from snooping through your personal or business financial records without proper cause.

🛑 Why It Matters

If the proposed change is passed, KRA will be able to demand access to private data such as:

• Mobile money and bank transactions

• Business records

• Customer databases

All this can happen without a warrant, giving the tax agency massive power over data that was previously protected by law.

📜 Background: This Isn’t the First Time

A similar attempt was made in the 2024 Finance Bill, where the government tried to amend the Data Protection Act, 2019. The goal? Give KRA unrestricted access to records held by:

• Banks

• Telcos

• Utility providers

• Schools

• Land registries

• NTSA and more

The amendment was supposed to help raise an additional KES 302 billion (approx. $2.3 billion) by closing tax loopholes.

But after nationwide protests, mostly youth-led, and criticism from groups like:

• Amnesty International Kenya

• The Law Society of Kenya

…the plan was dropped.

🧠 What’s Different in 2025?

This time, the Treasury, under Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, is avoiding changes to the Data Protection Act. Instead, it’s targeting only the Tax Procedures Act, hoping the narrower change will avoid public backlash while still achieving the same goal: unrestricted data access for KRA.

🗣️ What Critics Are Saying

Legal and civil society experts argue that this move:

• Violates Kenya’s Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy

• Conflicts with Section 51 of the Data Protection Act, which requires proper legal process for data access

• Undermines Section 60 of the Tax Procedures Act, which already gives KRA access to data, but with a court-issued warrant

In short, they see it as an attempt to sneak in surveillance powers through the back door.

🧾 Government’s Reasoning

The Treasury insists the change is about:

• Improving tax collection

• Curbing evasion

• Closing loopholes

• Expanding the tax base

While this may sound like responsible governance, it comes at a cost: your data privacy and personal freedoms.

👀 Final Thoughts

The proposal to remove privacy protections from Kenya’s tax laws has sparked fresh debate about how much power the government should have over citizens’ data. While tax compliance is important, many believe this must be balanced with constitutional rights, especially in a country still building trust in digital systems.

If you care about data privacy, financial transparency, and government accountability, now might be the time to follow this bill closely—and speak up.

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