The Muendo

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[Dan Aceda @danaceda]

Sooo anyway ... Finance Bill 2026 and The Creative Industry

A THREAD

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Wajir hosted Madaraka Day for the first time, and the government used the event to highlight infrastructure, irrigation, housing and development projects for Northern Kenya. Symbolism matters, but it is not enough.

Northern Kenya does not need a national ceremony alone. It needs roads, water, power, schools, hospitals, IDs, markets, security, and a permanent state presence after the cameras leave.

What the residents should be fighting for is Inclusion and not in an event. Inclusion is infrastructure, budget, dignity and follow-through. Delivery of promises.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Looking at the KPMG’s Finance Bill 2026 analysis, it says the Bill is focused on widening the tax base and enhancing compliance. It also highlights proposed changes affecting digital and platform-based financial services, virtual asset service providers, and KRA’s ability to issue assessments using third-party or system data.

The State wants to see more of the citizen.

Which is Fine. But the citizen also wants to see more of the State. More visibility into tax collection must be matched by more visibility into procurement, debt, contracts, wastage and punishment for theft.

You cannot demand transparency from citizens while hiding opacity inside government.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Citizen Digital reports that debate around Finance Bill 2026 has been intense among young people, digital entrepreneurs, online workers, students and smartphone users, especially around the proposed 25% excise duty on mobile phones. Treasury argues the proposal simplifies an existing structure rather than creating a new tax.

In Kenya, a smartphone is not luxury. It is infrastructure for survival. The phone is no longer just a device.

For many young Kenyans, it is the office, classroom, shop, bank, camera, CV, portfolio, sales channel and survival tool.

So when you tax the phone, people do not only see tax policy. They see a tax on access.

While at it this regime has turned us into Finance Analysts and Financial experts

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Ebola has not reached Kenya. But the consequences are already traveling. Flights are being cancelled.

Borders are being watched.Communities are protesting.
Courts are being asked to intervene. Countries are making entry rules. Airlines are calculating crew risk.

That is how public health works in the real world.

The virus may be biological, but the impact is economic, political and emotional. A disease outbreak does not only test hospitals.

It tests trust. It tests borders. It tests diplomacy. It tests communication. It tests whether citizens believe the state is protecting them or negotiating over their heads.

Kenya should not panic.

But Kenya should stop treating public trust as a small administrative matter.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Good morning from The Morning Signal. Here we go!

Nanyuki is not just protesting Ebola. Nanyuki is protesting consent. Because the question people are asking is simple: Who decided that Kenya should become the quarantine ground for exposed foreigners?

If the facility is safe, why is the public anxious? If the process is clean, why did residents feel ambushed? If the benefit is national, why does the risk feel local?

That is the deeper Signal.

Public health cannot be handled like a diplomatic side deal. A community is not a storage site for global anxiety. You cannot fly in risk, surround it with security, explain it after people protest, then call that preparedness.

Preparedness without trust becomes suspicion.

And suspicion, once it enters public health, is dangerous.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Finya kabisa

[TerriAnn Kibiriti @terrikibiriti]

But how do you shamelessly support a team that has never won the champions league??? As in how??????

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Good morning.....

This country tu!

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

The boldness Kenyans are operating on..... Love to see it.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

The Court of Appeal dismissing the Attorney General’s appeal on SGR contracts is not just a legal story.

Because contracts are where the real country is written.

Not at rallies.

Not in slogans.

Not during project launches.

Contracts. That is where debt hides. Where penalties hide. Where guarantees hide. Where monopoly rights hide. Where foreign leverage hides.

Where taxpayers later discover whether they bought development or inherited a trap. The SGR was built in the name of the Kenyan people. It was financed in the name of the Kenyan people. It is being repaid by the Kenyan people.

So the documents cannot be treated like private family secrets. If the public carries the debt, the public deserves the details.

That is the principle.

And it should not stop at SGR.

It should apply to every mega-project, every public-private partnership, every power deal, every health framework, every infrastructure contract and every agreement that binds future taxpayers.

Kenya does not lack development announcements.

Kenya lacks contract transparency.

Because the ribbon-cutting is public.

The burden is public.

The tax is public.

The repayment is public.

But somehow the paperwork becomes confidential.

That era must end.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

The Police issued a warning. How is that going presently?

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Finance Bill 2026 is not just a tax document. It is a control document. The state is not only asking: “How much do you earn?”

It is now asking:

How do you move money?

Which platform do you use?

What digital asset did you trade?

Which transaction can be seen?

Which dispute can still be enforced?

That is the bigger story. Kenya is building a revenue system that wants visibility into the daily financial life of ordinary people.

Not just companies.

Not just the wealthy.

Everyone.

And this is where the debate must mature. Because tax collection is necessary. But a country also has to ask whether it is building trust or building fear.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Kenya is not just being taxed. Kenya is being measured, priced, digitized, and squeezed. Here is a good example. Treasury is seeking an additional Sh201 billion in tax revenue, while the Finance Bill 2026 also proposes tighter digital payment, crypto reporting, and KRA enforcement measures.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Kenya Is Becoming a Country of Fees, Rails and Guarantees

Look at the pattern:

Phones may be taxed at activation.

eCitizen may charge more for access.

KRA wants deeper visibility into digital payments.

School fees are being pushed into state rails.

Microsoft wants guaranteed cloud demand.

Public budgets are squeezed by debt.

Citizens are being asked to comply faster while trust keeps falling.

Here is my hot take: Kenya is building a state that wants every transaction visible, every service charged, every citizen traceable, and every risk pushed downward.

That is the argument people will feel.

The government wants digital compliance.

Big Tech wants guaranteed demand.

Treasury wants more revenue.

Platforms want transaction flows.

Citizens want relief.

Something is off. A modern state should not only become better at seeing citizens.

It should become better at serving them.

If the state can see your payment instantly but cannot fix your road, stock your hospital, reduce your queue or protect your data, then digitization becomes a one-way mirror.

The citizen is visible.

The accountability is where the line is drawn.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

THE MT KENYA APOLOGY | Waiguru’s Sorry Is Not Just Emotion. It Is Political Damage Control.

Governor Anne Waiguru has apologised to Mt Kenya over Rigathi Gachagua’s ouster, acknowledging the emotional and political toll the impeachment has had on the region.

This is how you know the Gachagua wound is still alive. Mt Kenya politics is no longer arguing about what happened. It is arguing about who betrayed whom.

That is dangerous for Ruto’s camp.

Because betrayal is not solved by appointments.
It is not solved by statistics.
It is not solved by saying the region has positions.

Betrayal is emotional politics.

Once people believe they were used, the facts become secondary. The feeling becomes the campaign.

Waiguru’s apology is not just remorse. It is a signal that the political cost of that impeachment is still being counted.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

THE MICROSOFT MIRAGE | Kenya Wants the AI Future, but the Power Bill Has Arrived

Kenya and Microsoft are reportedly disagreeing over terms for a Sh129 billion / $1 billion data centre project. Reuters, citing Bloomberg, reported delays over payment demands, including requests for guaranteed cloud-capacity uptake, while Business Daily reports Kenya is hesitant to back Microsoft’s demand that the country help mobilise regional cloud demand.

This is where AI ambition meets infrastructure reality. You cannot declare yourself an AI hub if the business model needs public guarantees and the power question is still unresolved.

Data centres are not powered by press releases.
AI is not powered by summit language.
Cloud infrastructure is not powered by vibes.

It needs electricity, cooling, land, water, demand, financing, regulation and serious commercial risk allocation.

Kenya should want this project. But Kenya should not underwrite Big Tech’s risk just to look futuristic.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

THE ECITIZEN STATE | Convenience Fees Are Becoming a Toll Gate on Public Services

Treasury has opened public participation on draft eCitizen regulations that would introduce tiered convenience fees for government services, with earlier proposals pointing to charges of up to Sh100. The draft regulations are meant to give a legal basis to eCitizen charges after previous court challenges.

eCitizen is no longer just a portal. It is becoming the cash rail of the state. Kenya is slowly turning public service into a pay-per-click relationship.

You need a service.
You enter the portal.
You pay the government.
Then you pay to pay the government.

That may sound small until you remember who uses these services most: ordinary citizens, small traders, students, job seekers, applicants, parents and people trying to become compliant.

Digital government is good.

But digital government that adds toll gates to basic access can become extraction with better branding.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

THE PHONE TAX | The State Wants to Tax the Tool Young People Use to Survive

The Finance Bill 2026 has revived anger around new tax proposals, including a 25% excise duty on cellular phones at activation, plus wider KRA powers around tax returns, electronic systems and historical transactions. The Standard frames it as a Bill that risks reopening the Gen Z protest wound.

This is not just a phone tax. The phone is the office, bank, CV, shop, classroom, camera, M-Pesa line, Hustler Fund line, TikTok studio, job-search tool and emergency contact.

Taxing phones heavily in Kenya is not taxing luxury. It is taxing participation in the economy. This is how governments accidentally tax the future while pretending to raise revenue.

If a young person needs a phone to work, sell, apply, learn, move money and survive, then making the phone more expensive is not clever taxation.

It is anti-youth policy wearing fiscal language.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

Good morning, let's what is happening this morning shall we?The Morning Signal it is.

[The Muendo @MMuendo]

@TheNjoroge