Kenya’s public finance system is at a defining moment. Over the past decade, constitutional reforms, devolution, digital transformation, stronger oversight, and expanded public participation have strengthened transparency, citizen engagement, and accountability. Yet fiscal pressures, debt obligations, service delivery expectations, emerging technologies, and evolving development challenges are placing new demands on governments. The Public Finance Conference 2026 will open with a Leadership Dialogue exploring how Kenya can build a sustainable, responsive system that finances priorities, protects future generations, and delivers results for citizens.

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Kenya’s PFM framework already provides a strong legal and institutional foundation, yet persistent leakages, weak expenditure controls, pending bills and poor budget execution continue to undermine public resources. As rising debt and revenue pressures squeeze fiscal space, fewer resources are available to finance essential public services.

How then can Kenya close the gap between PFM policy and practice, strengthen enforcement and accountability ensuring that every shilling raised translates into value for money, sustainable public finances and better services for Kenyans?

Counties are expected to deliver constitutionally assigned services, yet some functions and resources remain at the national level, while national development priorities continue to shift with electoral cycles. Government is increasingly turning to domestic borrowing and alternative financing mechanisms such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), privatization and securitization. How then can Kenya strengthen fiscal decentralization, finance essential services and protect long-term development priorities while pursuing fiscal consolidation and ensuring transparency, accountability and equity?

Citizens continue to engage in budget processes, yet their priorities are not always reflected in final decisions. While weak feedback mechanisms can leave communities feeling unheard. How can Kenya move public participation beyond tokenistic compliance, strengthen inclusive citizen engagement and build relationship between citizens and government that translates voices into better public finance decisions and services?

Kenya is at a pivotal moment in determining how it finances human capital development, including health, nutrition, education, protection, and resilience. Despite recent recognition for its achievements, the country still faces a significant gap in productivity shaped by cumulative investments across key sectors.

This session will answer the critical question on how PFM can be structured to ensure that HCD is prioritized in budget making, financing for HCDs promotes equity, outcomes from HCD budgets are visible and there is value for money allocated for HCDs.

Public finance is evolving rapidly, with fiscal pressures, climate and economic shocks, demographic shifts, digitalisation, and rising citizen expectations challenging governments to mobilise and use public resources more effectively and sustainably. For Kenya, responding to these realities requires moving beyond periodic PFM reforms towards more adaptive approaches that enable governments and other actors to experiment, generate evidence, learn, adapt, and scale what works. Innovation and research can play a critical role in identifying new solutions, strengthening evidence-based decision-making, and sustaining reform gains. This session will explore how research, innovation, technology, and experimentation can advance Kenya’s public finance reforms and deliver lasting results for citizens.