Kenya has unveiled an ambitious new national budget, setting out its spending priorities for the 2026-27 financial year. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi tabled a budget worth 37 billion dollars, a figure described as one of the largest in the country's history, as the government seeks to keep its development agenda on track amid a challenging global environment.
The plan continues to prioritize President William Ruto's bottom-up economic transformation agenda, the framework the administration has used to frame its policies since taking office. Officials presented the budget as a tool to sustain economic growth, create jobs and strengthen resilience at a time of mounting external pressures.
Education emerged as the clear winner in the allocations, receiving the largest single share of the budget at around 6 billion dollars. The emphasis on schooling signals where the government wants to direct its resources, placing human capital at the heart of its longer-term economic ambitions.
Beyond education, the budget also made significant allocations to health, infrastructure and agriculture, the latter including fertilizer subsidies that have become a recurring feature of the government's support for farmers. Together, the allocations sketch out a spending plan that tries to balance social services with investment in productive sectors.
On the financing side, the government expects to raise approximately 28 billion dollars in revenue. That leaves a gap of around 8.5 billion dollars, a deficit the authorities plan to bridge mainly through domestic borrowing, a choice that reflects both the cost and the growing difficulty of securing external financing.
Kenya's budget was presented alongside those of other East African nations, which tabled their own spending plans on the same day under a shared regional theme of integration, resilience and digital transformation. Across the region, governments said they were bracing for external shocks, including the impact of conflict in the Middle East on energy prices, while trying to keep their development goals within reach.