Download Your Copy: The Chronicle Weekly July 13, 2026
Kenya’s numbers are telling two stories this week, and both are true. The Kenya Revenue Authority closed the year with record collections. The economy grew faster than expected. The stock market hit an all-time high.
And yet the government is spending three-quarters of its revenue just servicing debt, the housing programme has delivered a fraction of its promise, and the 2027 electoral map is already being redrawn beneath everyone’s feet. This issue of The Chronicle Weekly checks the claims against the counts.
There was a time when every budget cycle followed the same script: new taxes, public backlash, grudging compliance. That script broke in June 2024. Now the Kenya Revenue Authority has found another way to grow collections by 10.6 per cent without a single headline-grabbing new levy.
We look at how digital enforcement did the work that politics couldn’t, and why the informal sector may be where this strategy hits its limit.
Manufacturing is growing again. Construction is up. Tourism just had its best quarter in years. It’s the broadest recovery Kenya’s economy has shown in a while. However, GDP growth and household prosperity aren’t the same thing, and this piece asks which one Kenyans should actually be tracking heading into 2027.
A rally on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and a debt-service ratio nearly two and a half times the IMF’s recommended ceiling are both happening in the same economy, at the same time. Neither cancels the other out. We explain why the gap between these two numbers, not either one alone, is the story to watch going into an election year.
In Sports, On July 18, Kenyan gamers compete for 26 slots on a national team heading to the Global Esports Games in Los Angeles this December. The federation is registered, regulated, and even has a child-welfare policy.
What it doesn’t have is the payment infrastructure to let players actually get paid. We look at the gap between recognition and scale.
