(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya’s customs collections face fresh pressure after President William Ruto ordered the minimum customs charge for consolidated containerised cargo to be lowered to KES2 million ($15,500 / £12,200), a move that reverses a higher benchmark recently set by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
The directive, issued on Wednesday, cuts the customs benchmark from KES3.2 million ($24,800 / £19,500) to KES2 million ($15,500 / £12,200). The new figure is below the KES2.5 million ($19,400 / £15,300) level that had been in place for six years before KRA raised it, a decision that had sparked protests by small traders.
KRA insiders said the directive caught the tax authority off guard and would force a series of reviews that could affect revenue projections. One KRA official told Business Daily that the new rates had already been included in collection targets and that returning to a level last seen more than six years ago would cause setbacks. The official added that customs is a key driver of overall revenue performance and any changes to such rates affect the wider picture.
Customs collections generated KES988.8 billion ($7.67 billion / £6.03 billion) in the 2025/26 fiscal year, a 12.4% rise from the previous year. The figure exceeded the target by KES7.99 billion ($62 million / £48.8 million). In 2024/25, customs collected KES879.33 billion ($6.82 billion / £5.37 billion), an 11.1% increase from the prior year and KES48.96 billion ($380 million / £299 million) above target.
KRA has linked the strong customs performance to a shift introduced on 1st March 2023, when it began charging consolidated cargo per transaction instead of KES200 ($1.55 / £1.22) per kilogramme.
Sources told Business Daily that KRA customs officials held meetings on Thursday to review the impact of the presidential directive amid pressure from traders to implement the KES2 million benchmark immediately.
The directive came days after KRA defended the KES3.2 million benchmark, saying it reflected changes in freight costs, foreign exchange rates, insurance costs and the regional tax environment. KRA Customs Commissioner Lillian Nyawanda said on 27th August 2026 that the benchmark had been revised over the years based on analysis of trends and categories of goods commonly imported by consolidators. She said the last review took place in 2023 when a 40 foot container was assigned a value of KES2.5 million ($19,400 / £15,300). Nyawanda added that between 2023 and 2026 the tax landscape had changed due to exchange rate movements, freight and insurance costs, and stays of application at the regional level. She said the KES3.2 million figure was based on that analysis.
KRA’s customs decisions are guided by the Fourth Schedule of the East African Community Customs Management Act. The schedule provides methods for cargo valuation. These include the Transaction Value approach, where the customs value is based on the price actually paid for the imported goods, the Deductible Value approach, where the value is based on identical or similar goods imported into a partner state, and the Computed Value approach, where the value is based on the cost of materials, fabrication and processing used in production.