Seventy per cent of Kenyans feel that their current economic situation is worse than it was this time last year, a new poll has revealed.
According to the latest poll by Tifa, Kenya is facing a double crisis coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and loss of livelihoods.
However, half of Kenyans (50 per cent) are hopeful that their personal and family economic situation will be better in 2021 with 25 per cent feeling that it will be worse.
Nine per cent of the respondents expect their situation to remain the same while the rest (16 pre cent) are not sure about this.
Those affected the most and who expressed the highest negative sentiment regarding their economic situation are those living in Nairobi.
The capital has had the highest number of Covid-19 cases and has suffered the brunt of the restrictions brought about by the pandemic the longest.
In terms of gender, Male respondents at 53 per cent are more optimistic than women (47 per cent) about their personal and family economic conditions for 2021.
In terms of age, the youth (18-34 years) at 55 per cent are more optimistic about the future than older people at 43 per cent.
In terms of regions, residents of North Eastern are the most optimistic (72 per cent) about 2021, followed by those in Central (55 per cent) and Nairobi (54 per cent).
Those least optimistic about next year are residents of Coast (45 per cent), Western (46 per cent) and Nyanza (47 per cent).
Earlier this month, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani announced that taxes cut during the start of the pandemic will revert to normal from January 1, 2021.
Yatani said the move was necessitated by the ease of some of the containment measures and subsequent resumption of normalcy.
The CS said that effective from January 1, 2021, the Corporate Tax rate will revert to 30 per cent from the current 25 per cent.
The individual Income of Tax rate (VAT) will revert to 16 per cent from the current 25 per cent and the Value Added Tax rate VAT will revert to 16 per cent from the current 14 per cent.
The tax relief measures were deemed necessary to support Kenyan businesses and to provide critical relief to the most vulnerable in society.
The government's restrictive measures to contain the pandemic continue to have negative economic impacts on businesses and workers.
The country has witnessed job cuts across various sectors, and incomes of companies and available working hours for staff have fallen significantly.
As a result, Kenyans do not have enough money to buy food, and other basics due to reduced earnings.
According to the poll, these are some of the reasons why Kenyans feel that their personal financial situation was worse in 2020.
The national poll was conducted between December 8-19 with a sample size of 1,550 respondents.
Data was collected through telephone interviews with a margin of error of +/- 2 per cent.