The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has collected KES 1.010 trillion in the first four months of the 2026/27 financial year, crossing the trillion-shilling mark a month earlier than it did in previous years.
The Authority released the figures, pointing to a strong October in which it raised KES 260.630 billion, slightly above the KES 258.304 billion it had planned for the month.
The margin over target was thin, at under 1%, but the pace of growth tells a bigger story. October collections were 15.5% higher than a year earlier, nearly double the 8.0% growth recorded in October 2025 and well ahead of the 6.5% posted in October 2024.
KRA attributes the result to both customs and domestic taxes beating their targets, rather than to one stream pulling the rest along.
| Area | October collection | Against target | Growth on last year |
| All taxes | KES 260.6 billion | 0.9% above | 15.5% |
| Customs (import taxes) | KES 94.8 billion | 1.1% above | 11.3% |
| Domestic revenue | KES 165.4 billion | About 0.8% above | 18.1% |
| Corporation tax | KES 23.9 billion | 19.2% above | 31.6% |
| Domestic VAT | KES 33.4 billion | Marginally above | 22.1% |
| Excise duty | Not stated | KES 945 million above | 54.1% |
Customs, which collects taxes on goods coming into the country, had the best month in its history, overtaking the previous record set in July. Taxes on non-oil imports grew 26%, which did most of the work, although the statement does not say how oil-related imports performed.
Since non-oil taxes beat their target by KES 7.243 billion while Customs as a whole cleared its target by only KES 1.009 billion, oil taxes appear to have collected noticeably less than planned.
On the domestic side, corporation tax paid by companies was the standout, coming in almost 20% above target. Firms in electricity, manufacturing, transport, and wholesale accounted for about 81% of it, which suggests the gain rested on a handful of sectors rather than the wider economy.
VAT only just cleared its target, though KRA says growth in VAT picked up to 21.9% in September and October from 12.2% in July and August.
Excise duty, charged on goods such as alcohol and tobacco, beat its target for the first time in a long while. Payments from wine and spirits makers more than doubled, and tobacco payments nearly doubled, both of which KRA credits to higher deliveries, while premium beer rose 43.5% and keg beer was almost flat.
Soft drinks slipped 4.8%, and payments from bottled water makers fell 96.4%, a drop the Authority puts down to policy changes without saying which ones.
READ: KRA Beats September Customs Revenue Target by KES 965 Million
The harder test starts now. KRA wants to collect KES 3.268 trillion by the end of June 2027, and with 30.9% of that already in the bag, it needs to raise about KES 2.258 trillion over the next eight months.
That works out to roughly KES 282 billion a month, which is about 8% more than it collected in October and nearly 12% above its average so far this year.
| If KRA collects this much each month from November | The year ends at | Against the KES 3.268 trillion target |
| KES 252.5 billion (average so far) | KES 3.03 trillion | KES 238 billion short |
| KES 260.6 billion (October’s level) | KES 3.095 trillion | KES 173 billion short |
| KES 282.3 billion (pace needed) | KES 3.268 trillion | Target met |
For now, the Authority is upbeat, saying it is “confident that it will continue with the upward trajectory” and reach its target. Whether that holds will depend on how import taxes, company payments, and VAT perform in the months ahead, particularly if the strong corporate gains prove to be more than a one-month spike.
