Stark Inequality Findings Spark Heated Debate Among Top Kenyan Leaders
Speakers pose with copies of Oxfam’s latest inequality report, which highlights the growing economic divide in Kenya, during the launch event in Nairobi on Wednesday, November 26, 2025.
The release of Oxfam’s new report, Kenya’s Inequality Crisis: The Great Economic Divide, triggered an intense exchange among senior leaders with concerns that widening disparities now threaten Kenya’s social and economic stability.
The report reveals that 125 Kenyans hold more wealth than 43 million citizens, while 40 percent live in extreme poverty. It also shows that one percent of Kenyans control 78 percent of financial assets, underscoring a divide that leaders warned cannot be ignored.
Speaking during the report reveal in Nairobi on Wednesday, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said the report exposes the true state of the country more accurately than the President’s recent address to Parliament.
“This report is what should have been presented in Parliament as the State of the Nation, not the other one that was read,” Sifuna said.
He added that Nairobi, the county he represents, is now the most unequal in Kenya, with thousands of children in informal schools excluded from government support.
Sifuna criticised what he called punitive taxation on workers in the formal sector, arguing that the government is over-milking a shrinking base instead of creating jobs.
“You can decide you have one cow that you milk until blood starts coming out, or get two cows and milk five litres each per day,” he said. “They have decided that the few of you on the payroll are going to be taxed to death.”
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro agreed that inequality is a real and urgent concern but placed major blame on Kenya’s rising debt burden, which he said undermines development and widens disparities.
Nyoro warned that Kenya’s borrowing has reached dangerous levels.
“Kenya is borrowing 3.5 billion shillings every single day. In one year we are borrowing what President Kibaki borrowed in ten years,” he said.
He argued that much of this borrowing does not benefit Kenyans and said the country needs a national “debt conversation” before it becomes unmanageable.
The MP also raised alarm over a proposed increase in school fees for day secondary schools.
“It is unacceptable that a circular has gone out wanting to add school fees by 9,000 shillings from January. There will be no school fees increase as long as we are still serving Kenyans,” he said.
Nyoro explained that access to affordable education is essential for bridging inequality and warned that increasing fees would push thousands of learners out of school.
Suba South MP Caroli Omondi took a broader view, arguing that inequality in Kenya is no longer limited to income, it is now driven by technology, politics and entrenched cultural practices.
He said the growing shift to cashless payments risks leaving out low-income earners who rely on small cash transactions.
“The woman who sells tomatoes for 20 shillings does not get the same value when you force her into cashless payments. There are direct and indirect charges,” he said. “What about the unbanked?”
Omondi also criticised the dominance of a financial elite that profits from government securities, locking ordinary Kenyans out of affordable credit.
“One percent of the population controls 78 percent of the financial assets. These are the people milking you through interest rates,” he noted.
He proposed democratizing government lending through small-denomination digital platforms so that citizens, rather than banks, can benefit from interest paid by the state.
On education, Omondi cautioned that the competency-based curriculum could widen disparities, especially for children in informal settlements whose parents cannot keep up with its demands.
He also argued that political inequality limits accountability, noting that expensive campaigns prevent competent leaders from emerging in poorer communities.
Despite differing political views, all three leaders agreed that Kenya must urgently confront inequality, which they said threatens national cohesion and future development.
But Sifuna insisted that the current administration cannot be relied upon to deliver the needed reforms.
Nyoro maintained that government institutions still have the capacity to act if the right decisions are prioritized.
Omondi urged leaders to move beyond partisan agendas and return to constitutional values that emphasise fairness, justice and equity.
“Nations are built on shared visions,” he said. “Inequality will not end unless we confront corruption, redesign social protections and ensure every Kenyan has a fair chance.”
The report has now placed inequality, long debated but rarely addressed at the centre of Kenya’s national conversation, setting the stage for a heated political and policy battle in the months ahead.
