Government's budget priorities will leave the country worse off

Kenya's 2025/2026 budget estimates, recently tabled before Parliament, paint a worrying picture of a government adrift-one that is not merely tightening the belt, but tightening it around the necks of the most vulnerable. In a year when the cost of living has reached punishing heights, when public hospitals are collapsing under the weight of patient demand, and when families are desperate for some relief, the proposed budgetary cuts threaten to plunge the country deeper into crisis. Worse still, some of the areas spared from the austerity knife are the very ones that least deserve more funding.