Brian Nagweya has been paying Sh70 a day for his phone since he made the decision that a camera and a handset would define his career.

The Kenyatta University mechanical engineering graduate works on Kimathi Street in Nairobi’s CBD. He charges Sh60 to Sh100 per photo taken.

The phone is not the only item in that equation. It is the booking system, the marketing platform, the editing assistant and payment channel.

“Most of my customers come through the phone,” the 25-year-old told the Nation.

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“You cannot be seen if you are not online.”

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Mr Nagweya started saving for a camera in January 2024 while still a student. He set aside Sh700 a week from the Sh1,500 he lived on.

By the time he was ready to start, a friend had lent him Sh20,000. He added Sh15,000 from his savings. The Sh35,000 bought him a camera, a field light and the basics. The loan has not been fully settled.

“After university, there are limited jobs, so you have to find a way to make money. You have to sacrifice even before starting. I had to make a tough decision, not minding what people would say,” he said.

“I knew that after university, things would not be straightforward, so I planned early.”

Mr Nagweya makes around Sh700 on a good day.

“There are days I come to work but leave in the evening with nothing. I still have to be back the following morning,” he said.

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The Finance Bill, 2026 – in Parliament since May 5 and is to take effect on July 1 – proposes a 25 per cent excise duty on every mobile phone activated in Kenya – imported or locally made – applied the moment the device is switched on.

For a handset retailing at Sh15,000, that is an additional Sh3,750. For a Sh10,000 device, it is Sh2,500.

For Mr Nagweya and others, the concern is not just the price of new phones. It is the cumulative cost of keeping a workplace running on fragile tools and an income that one is not sure of.

“Even maintaining the mobile phone is expensive,” he said.

“Sometimes a small part breaks and you have to replace it with money you have neither planned for nor made.”

According to Mr Nagweya, young people depend on these gadgets to create content and earn a living.

“If you make mobile phones expensive, the capital to invest becomes high. If they reduce whatever they are proposing to around 10 per cent, that is bearable. The 25 per cent proposed is too much,” he said.

This is the third Finance Bill of the Kenya Kwanza regime since 2023. The second, the Finance Bill, 2024, was withdrawn that June following nationwide demonstrations that left dozens of people dead and many others injured or abducted in a crackdown by state security agencies.

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The protesters, mostly young men and women, stormed Parliament on June 25, 2024. The date is two years away by six days from the July 1 implementation deadline of this Bill.

Protestors — Members of the public protest outside Parliament Buildings in Nairobi on June 25, 2024.

Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group

The government has retained a Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on phones in the Finance Bill, 2026.

Tax experts say VAT exemptions and excise duty are separate instruments and that one does not cancel the other.

Unlike the eco-levy proposed in 2024, which after protests was narrowed to imported devices only before the Bill was withdrawn, the 2026 excise duty applies to every phone, regardless of origin.

Locally assembled handsets, which the protesters in 2024 fought to protect, are subject to this provision.

The government has not published a consumer impact assessment for the provision or stated the projected revenue to be raised.

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The National Treasury had not responded to a request for comment by the time of going to press.

Creator economy

Ms Loreen Tessoti, 24, never thought she would be a content creator. She had qualified for a bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine after completing high school in 2022.

“I had the grades to go to university but did not report due to financial challenges,” she said.

She turned to TikTok in 2023, beginning with lip-sync videos, make-up content and social commentary.

In June 2024, a video Ms Tessoti posted about the Finance Bill demonstrations went viral, opening doors to podcast invitations, brand collaborations and public discussions.

It also came with pressure. In 2025, she received threats serious enough to make her step back from political commentary for a while.

Today, content creation is Ms Tessoti’s main source of income. She makes an average of Sh12,000 a month.

“The money is not consistent. Sometimes I get gigs, other times I don’t,” she said.

The Finance Bill, 2026 proposes a five per cent withholding tax on payments relating to digital content monetisation. The provision amends the Third Schedule of the Income Tax Act.

Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — Meta platforms – Facebook and Instagram – dominate digital advertising in Kenya.

Photo credit: File | Lionel Bonaventure | AFP

A comparable clause appeared in the Finance Bill, 2024 at 1.5 per cent, applied to digital platforms instead of creators directly.

Of concern is that the 2026 rate is more than three times higher and explicitly targets creator income.

“Content creation is expensive. Hiring podcast equipment, securing locations, paying editors and internet costs consume much of what young creators earn,” Ms Tessoti said.

“Not everyone earns a lot from social media. It is mostly the big creators who make good money. Upcoming creators are struggling.”

She believes the pattern is deliberate.

“Every time young people complain, the government pretends it has listened. Then they introduce the tax in another form,” she said.

“If everything we are trying to build from nothing is being taxed, where are young people supposed to start from?”

Whether the five per cent applies to payments made directly by brands to creators outside platforms or only to platform-administered income is a question the Finance Bill, 2026, does not fully answer.

The position of the government on the provision has not been made available to the Daily Nation.

Done away with

The Finance Bill, 2026, is as notable for what it excludes as for what it proposes. Several measures from the 2024 Bill, which became focal points for public anger, do not appear in the current document.

There is no 16 per cent VAT on bread, as there is the annual 2.5 per cent motor vehicle circulation tax.

VAT on the transport of sugarcane from farms to millers has not returned. The provision that would have allowed the Kenya Revenue Authority to access mobile money records without a court order has not been reinstated in its original form.

The Bill introduces VAT exemptions on electric bicycles, electric buses, electric motorcycles, solar batteries and lithium-ion batteries. Dialysis kits are added to the VAT-exempt list. Raw materials for animal feed and pharmaceutical manufacturing are also exempted.

The Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry Rebecca Miano (right) flags off the first two E9 Kubwa buses at BasiGo’s Electric Bus production line in Thika town.

Photo credit: Pool

Whether these exclusions are a political calculation in advance of the second anniversary of the deadly protests, or reflect fiscal priorities that changed for other reasons, is not stated in the Bill. Treasury has not explained.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah said in June last year that 97 per cent of the measures in the withdrawn 2024 Bill had been legislated through separate bills by December 2024.

The Finance Bill, 2026, does not reverse any of the measures.

What the Bill extends is the government’s reach into the digital economy. Tax obligations now attach to cryptocurrency users, digital marketplace earners, content creators and card payment transactions, areas that were either lightly taxed or untaxed before.

Digital economy

Youth joblessness in Kenya remains among the highest in sub-Sahara. A number of young Kenyans have built income streams in digital spaces through content creation, gig platforms, freelance work and cryptocurrency, partly because formal employment has not kept pace with graduate numbers.

The Finance Bill, 2026 introduces taxes on several of these income streams simultaneously. Economists and fiscal researchers say taxing informal and digital income is a legitimate government objective, and that the design of the taxes and the mechanisms for collection matter significantly for compliance rates and economic impact.

The government has not published distributional analyses showing how the new measures affect different income groups.

The Bill is expected to proceed to the second and third readings in June, ahead of the July 1 implementation date for most provisions. Presidential assent is required before a provision becomes law.

Parliament — The National Assembly in a past session.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

On Kimathi Street, Mr Nagweya is still repaying the camera and phone loans. He saved and borrowed “because I knew formal employment would not be guaranteed after graduation”.

“That money is what started everything. Without it, I would be nowhere,” he said.

“I am still paying what I borrowed little by little. It is not easy because I cannot tell what I will get when I come to town.”

The mechanical engineering graduate said he is not against taxes but is doing some calculations to see if the numbers will still work for him.

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jmwangi@ke.nationmedia.com