Kenyans filing individual income tax returns will have to adjust their calendars after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) moved the annual deadline from June 30 to April 30.

The new filing date will take effect from January 1, 2027, following changes introduced through the Finance Act 2026.

The law requires individual taxpayers to submit their returns by the end of the fourth month after the close of the year of income. KRA said the revised timeline will apply to returns covering the 2026 year of income and subsequent years.

The authority announced the change on Tuesday, September 8, saying the earlier deadline was intended to improve the administration of tax returns and reduce the pressure associated with last-minute filing.

The authority expects spreading the filing process over a longer period to ease congestion on its systems and minimise technical challenges that often emerge as the June deadline approaches.

The move is also expected to give KRA more time to conduct compliance reviews and validate taxpayer information before the start of the next financial year.

KRA Commissioner General Adan Mohamed told Parliament’s Finance Committee in June that staggered filing timelines would strengthen the authority’s ability to undertake these checks.

The change applies to individual taxpayers, including employees whose income is subject to Pay As You Earn (PAYE), self-employed Kenyans and resident individuals earning income from different sources.

KRA has urged affected taxpayers to revise their filing schedules and ensure they meet the new requirement to avoid penalties.

Companies, however, will not be affected by the change. Corporate taxpayers will continue to file their income tax returns by the end of the sixth month after the close of their year of income, retaining the June 30 deadline for entities whose financial year ends in December.

Failure to file within the prescribed period will attract a penalty of 5 per cent of the tax payable or Sh2,000 for individuals, whichever is higher.

For companies and other non-individual taxpayers, late filing will attract a penalty of 5 per cent of the tax due or Sh20,000, whichever is higher.

“This change will affect individual taxpayers and self-employed persons, so make sure you adjust your filing calendar accordingly,” KRA stated.

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Nairobi, Kenya |Tuesday, 8th September 2026 – The Packaging Producer Responsibility Organisation (PAKPRO) and the Kenya Scouts Association (KSA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance environmental education, waste segregation and packaging recovery among young people and schools across Kenya.

The partnership marks the official launch of the TUWEZESHE program – PAKPRO’s environmental education and awareness programme designed to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and practical tools to make sustainable waste management part of everyday life.

Through the partnership, PAKPRO and KSA will leverage the Scouts’ extensive youth network to promote environmental stewardship in schools and communities, while creating practical opportunities for learners to participate in waste segregation, recycling and packaging recovery.

“Tuwezeshe is about giving training to young minds early to shift behaviour change positively within society around waste management,” said PAKPRO Chief Executive Officer, Joyce Gachugi-Waweru.

“This partnership is important for us as it gives us access to more than 200,000 schools within the Kenya Scouts Association. We know we have a disposal culture, as our culture is skewed in Kenya. We recognise the power of the KSA team to shift cultural power to create a mindset in society that values waste. People tend to look at young children like others; they are consumers and not net contributors, but in the next 20 years, they will determine whether we have a clean country. We know that the habits and values we develop early in life can stay with us for years. Hence, a culture shift from the current irresponsible nature we experience today in the larger society will be important. Through our partnership with the Kenya Scouts Association, we are bringing environmental education into schools and allowing learners to turn knowledge into  action and become environmental champions in their schools, homes and communities.”

From Environmental education to Action

A key component of the Tuwezeshe programme will be Adopt-a-Bin, PAKPRO’s packaging recovery initiative, which will provide dedicated segregated collection points for recyclable materials. As part of the programme, PAKPRO will support the placement of a total of 600 segregated recycling bins in 150 schools nationally, providing learners and school communities with accessible infrastructure to separate and recover packaging

materials. For learners, this creates a direct connection between what they learn about the environment and what they do on a day to day. Additionally, the Tuwezeshe program initiative will undertake a quarterly take-back program focused on paper and cartons, materials commonly generated through day-to-day school activities, including used exercise books, examination papers and packaging.

Rather than treating recycling as a one-off activity, the programme seeks to integrate waste segregation into everyday school life. Teachers and school administrators often store these materials, which prevents optimised use of their space. This programme seeks to evacuate these readily recycled materials through PAKPRO’s recovery network and channel them back into productive use.

The Kenya Scouts Association will play an important role in mobilising young people and supporting environmental activities within schools and communities.

“Scouting has always been about equipping young people with the values, skills and confidence to make a positive contribution to society,” said Hon. Victor Radido, Chief Commissioner, Kenya Scouts Association.

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“Through this partnership with PAKPRO, we are giving our young people an opportunity to take practical

action on an issue that affects their schools, homes and communities. Tuwezeshe provides an important  platform for our Scouts to lead by example and champion responsible waste management.”

Building a culture of responsible waste management

The partnership comes at a time when Kenya is strengthening its approach to sustainable waste management and implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations, 2024.

For PAKPRO, environmental education is an important part of building a sustainable packaging recovery system. While EPR establishes responsibility for packaging beyond the point of sale, lasting impact depends on consumers and communities understanding how to properly separate, handle and recover packaging.

Mr. Moses Danda, National Executive Commissioner, Kenya Scouts Association, said: Through our network of  Scouts, we want to put effort into attitude change of young people beyond knowledge on environmental protection lessons beyond the classroom and into homes and communities. By giving young people access  to opportunities to participate in waste recovery, separation of waste, we help them understand the value of  the materials they use every day. This partnership is an important step towards duty to self, duty to others in environmental care.”

Through Tuwezeshe, PAKPRO aims to reach young people at an early stage and build comprehension that packaging is a resource, especially when it is kept clean, separated and recovered. The launch will see the unveiling of the first Adopt-a-Bin recycling station, symbolising the beginning of a wider programme that seeks to make schools centres of environmental learning and practical action.

An opportunity for wider partnerships The Tuwezeshe and Adopt-a-Bin programmes also provide an opportunity for corporates, institutions and other partners to support environmental education and packaging recovery in schools. Through sponsorship and partnerships, organizations can support the installation of segregated recycling stations, environmental education activities and material recovery, strengthen their ESG impact by creating visible and measurable environmental and social impact at community level.

By combining PAKPRO’s expertise in Extended Producer Responsibility, packaging recovery and the circular economy with KSA’s national youth network and community reach, the partnership seeks to demonstrate that environmental action can begin in the classroom and extend into homes and communities.Together, PAKPRO and the Kenya Scouts Association are calling on schools, learners, teachers, parents, communities and partners to make waste segregation and recycling part of everyday life.

Tuwezeshe is about more than teaching young people about the environment. It is about allowing them to act.

KIGALI, Rwanda, 8 September 2026 – Access to climate adaptation finance remains a significant challenge for smallholder farmers and rural businesses across Africa, with available capital often failing to reach those who need it most. To help bridge this financing and delivery gap, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Equity Group have kicked off the Africa Rural Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanism (ARCAFIM) – a US$200 million, private sector-led mechanism built to close that gap for smallholder farmers and rural businesses across East Africa – at the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda.

ARCAFIM is convened with the co-financiers of the Green Climate Fund, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund and also co-financed by the Government of Denmark and the European Union.

The mechanism runs for twelve years and is structured in two parts: US$180 million of lending capital and approximately US$20 million of technical assistance. Because the lending capital revolves over roughly four investment cycles, it is expected to generate in the order of US$266 million in loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and smallholder farmers across East Africa’s food systems.

What distinguishes ARCAFIM is a detailed climate change adaptation taxonomy ensuring critical knowledge transfer of viable climate adaptation investment options to participating financial institutions and smallholder farmers and agro-businesses and that a commercial bank is carrying the risk alongside the public capital rather than administering it. Of the US$180 million lending base, US$90 million comes from Equity Group’s own balance sheet, matching the concessional contribution one for one. Credit protection is tranched across the portfolio, with international financing partners covering a first-loss layer, a mezzanine layer shared with the bank, and the bank carrying the senior risk.

The programme will operate in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, with the ambition of providing financing to approximately 260,000 smallholder producers and 500 rural MSMEs. At least 50 per cent of the intended beneficiaries will be women and 30 per cent youth. The initiative is expected to strengthen food security for approximately 1.2 million people and to benefit an estimated 1.5 million people in total, directly and indirectly, while helping rural communities and businesses invest in measures that enable them to better withstand the effects of climate change.

2. The measure of success is commercial permanence. ARCAFIM is designed so that lending for climate resilience survives as an ordinary business line for African financial institutions long after the concessional capital has been spent.

Speaking during the launch, Dr. Gérardine Mukeshimana, Vice President IFAD, said the success of climate adaptation finance will ultimately depend on its ability to translate global commitments into tangible investments in rural communities.

“ARCAFIM’s ambition is to make rural climate adaptation a recognizable, viable and sustainable business line for African financial institutions. It will support tailored financial products and a climate adaptation financing taxonomy, so that participating institutions gain the experience, systems and confidence to continue expanding adaptation finance. The mechanism is starting in East Africa, but it is designed to be adapted and replicated across Africa,” said Mukeshimana.

The technical assistance component is part of the financial architecture rather than an add-on. It builds the capacity of participating microfinance institutions and SACCOs to originate adaptation lending and gives farmers and rural enterprises the technical knowledge to identify which investments will actually protect them — irrigation and water harvesting, dairy and livestock resilience, post-harvest storage, renewable energy, and climate-resilient agro-processing. Dr. James Mwangi, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Group Holdings Plc, said the mechanism reframes how African finance sees the rural borrower.

“Africa’s smallholder farmers are not waiting to be rescued. They are entrepreneurs operating in the most demanding risk environment on earth, and what they have lacked is a financial system built to back them. ARCAFIM changes that equation.

By committing our own balance sheet alongside concessional capital, we are not funding a project — we are building a market, one in which lending climate resilience becomes an ordinary banking business rather than an act of charity. Dignity begins with being seen as bankable. If we prove this in East Africa, the model belongs to the whole continent,” said Dr. Mwangi. Moses Nyabanda, Managing Director of Equity Bank Kenya Limited, said the bank will play a direct role in translating climate adaptation finance into practical investments for farmers and agricultural value chain businesses.

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“Through ARCAFIM, we will finance smallholder farmers and agricultural producers directly and
through microfinance institutions, SACCOs and value chain companies, while extending financing to rural MSMEs. We will also build capacity on climate adaptation finance and promote sustainable agricultural practices and technologies.

The goal is simple: enable farmers and agricultural businesses to adapt, increase production, grow revenues and incomes, and become more resilient to the effects of climate change,” said Nyabanda. 3 “ARCAFIM is an important example of Green Climate Fund’s (GCF’s) catalytic role in bringing partners and capital together to scale up investment in climate-resilient agriculture.

Through its US$55 million commitment and close collaboration with IFAD and the program’s financing partners, GCF helped structure a mechanism that mobilizes substantial commercial investment from Equity Group and expands access to adaptation finance for smallholder farmers and rural businesses across East Africa.” said Catherine Koffman, Director of the Department of Africa Region at the Green Climate Fund. “Mobilizing private capital for sustainable development is central to Finland’s development policy.

ARCAFIM demonstrates how public-private collaboration can unlock financing for sustainable investments and channel capital to where it is needed most. Strengthening the resilience of agriculture to climate change is a smart investment that benefits both communities and businesses: it increases productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers while reducing the risks associated with agricultural finance,” said Juha Savolainen, Director General at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Nordic Development Fund (NDF) Managing Director, Satu Santala, said the fund’s support for ARCAFIM from its inception reflected the importance of building mechanisms capable of unlocking greater investment in climate adaptation.

“NDF is pleased to have supported ARCAFIM from the very beginning, helping lay the foundations for a mechanism that can unlock greater investments in climate adaptation. Together with our Nordic and international partners, we are proud to reduce investment risk and mobilise financing for smallholder farmers and rural MSMEs. ARCAFIM demonstrates how innovation, partnerships, risk-sharing, and catalytic finance can help accelerate climate adaptation where it is needed most,” said Santala.

The launch brought together representatives of IFAD and the financing institutions, alongside
government representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, private-sector investors, development partners and climate finance institutions. The agreements were signed by Gérardine Mukeshimana for IFAD and Moses Nyabanda for Equity Bank Kenya, in a ceremony presided over by Hannington Namara, Managing Director of Equity Bank Rwanda.

By strengthening financial intermediation and private lending channels across agricultural value chains, ARCAFIM seeks to demonstrate how climate adaptation finance can become a sustainable business line while improving access to finance for underserved rural communities.

The initiative also seeks to generate practical lessons that can inform the replication of blended climate finance approaches in other regions of Africa facing similar challenges in financing climate resilience.

IFAD and Equity Group have identified Southern and West Africa as the next candidate regions.