Joe

Techie | Entrepreneur | Working on Kenya 3.0

[Curto wick @kienileaves]

Me at the border when my Burundian barber tries to leave(nataka anieleze kama ni Ruto alimleta Nairobi ama ni kazi):

[Edwin Sifuna @edwinsifuna]

When Companies make decisions about where to put their investments, the dispute resolution regime in place is key because disputes arise all the time. The “Mambo Matatu, pack and go” approach where the President can just shut down your business is very bad for investment and consequently, job creation. It is why we in Linda Mwananchi insist on a return to the Rule of Law. Thats our Plan!

[Julians Amboko @AmbokoJH]

UPDATE: Seven months ago, I asked the Chief Manager in charge of eTIMS how taxpayers doing business could claim expenses per Sec16(1,c) of the Income Tax Act yet most state agencies weren't issuing eTIMS invoices (see quoted tweet).

Today, the Revenue Authority announces integration of eTIMS with IFMIS & says two critical things:

· All suppliers dealing with government must generate valid eTIMS invoices before submission for payment processing through eTIMS
· The details of invoices submitted to government entities must correspond with the invoices generated & recorded in eTIMS

Musings:

· Consider this a signal that the window granted for uploading & claiming non-eTIMS backed invoices that was allowed for the year of income 2025 (i.e. the filing we did in 2026) will highly likely not be granted for the year of income 2026 (i.e. the filing we will do in 2027)
· It's important to periodically check one's dashboard on iTax to be sure that eTIMS invoices generated are actually being captured on the ledger

[Ⓝⓖ'ⓞⓡⓞⓡⓘⓔⓣ🐐🇰🇪 @baroswahjr]

"Anatoka Kiganjo" imenimaliza😂😂

[daisy explains @daisy_explains]

Kuna duka hapa nakuru that makes me hate poverty sana. You buy and proceed to pay. Kuna mtu wa kuangalia what you've bought, apatie wa kuandika receipt, then apatie wa ku stamp receipt then apatie wa kuchukua cash kama si cash kuba wa mpesa then wa kuconfirm. 😭😭😭😭kitu ya 350

[Mihr Thakar @MihrThakar]

Someone asked me: between buying shares and joining a SACCO, which is better for a beginner getting into investment?

The answer is not straightforward or definitive. Let us look at the scenario... 🧵

[DismasWaTabu @DismasWaTabu]

"Wacha tujifanye tunagombana wasidhani we serve the same master"

[Mr Piccolo @iamchrizten]

This is a must watch for ladies.

[Chinx @justChinks]

I once mistakenly dated a content creator
Tripods get set up and entrances into rooms are repeated 6-7 times. It’s a foolish man’s sport

[Kipkurui Wilbur 🇰🇪 🇬🇧 @wilber1990f]

Abroad should be for Academic and Financial reasons. If you can hit that target in 5 years, just check out. My number 1 reason as a married man, you stop being a man. You have to be partially a child minder. 2, income hits a ceiling. The higher you earn, the higher the tax. 3, it is really hard to scale using human resource. You have to pay them high and sponsor their visas. 4, no social life. You have to force it and it’s expensive. 5. Unless you are a citizen, your residency is not certain. 6. No matter how they try, your kids will always be struggling to belong. 7. There are no deals. Hakuna ujanja.

It has upsides too. 1. You graduate pretty fast, no missing mark issues. 2. Chances of dying by road accidents are very low. 3. Systems really work. 4. Education is quality. 5. Environment is clean. 6. Thinking improves significantly. 7. Minimum income is sufficient to change your life.

Choose your struggle

[Gitz  @Gitz__]

You never learn

[East African Community Investor @EACinvestor]

Choice of investment ideally should be based on your age, what investments you’re able to access and where you’re in life financially.

This is how I personally view investing: sorry, it’s a long post😅

At a young age, the age of accumulating wealth, focus should be on upskilling, growing your income and allocating money to higher risk investments that will have higher returns in the future. Generally, those investments will be equities, ie from index funds like the S&P 500 to individual stocks. (I saw someone post that 20 years ago, if you put 10K into Equity Bank it’ll be worth almost 400K today). That’s the power of the stock market & why it’s one of the best wealth generators in the world.

In your mid 40s, you should have a decent amount invested and enjoy good cash flow from your investments. The wealth you have accumulated needs to be preserved. This is where real estate comes in. The returns are lower but real estate tends to preserve wealth and over the long term tends to perform really well. Not as well as equities but better than bonds. This move also diversifies your wealth.

At an advanced age, let’s say in the 60s or around retirement time, this is when you turn your cashflows into some bonds for stable & predictable income. It gives you a buffer from interrupting any of your investments in stocks/real estate in times of volatility or economic downturn. Focus on short and medium term bonds ( atleast 60-70% allocation) as these can help you keep up with inflation.

The reason why I personally stay away from bonds at my age (37), especially in Kenya is because of inflation.

What inflation does is it depletes purchasing power of a currency over time. This is why we discourage holding excess cash under your mattress, in a savings account or MMFs/bonds and encourage you use the money to buy assets.

To bring it home a little, I remember in ~2000 I used to be sent to a kiosk/duka to buy a matchstick box. It used to cost 50 cents a box. In 2006, this was about 1 bob and now it’s about 5 bob (or 10 for carrefour folks😅). So if you saved your 1 bob under a mattress in 2006 as your future matchstick budget, you can no longer afford that matchstick today. That’s real life inflation! So in finance terms, we say your 1 bob from 2006 has lost ~80% of its purchasing power!

Now let’s apply that concept to bond investing!

Since I cannot predict inflation over the next 20 years, let’s say the 20M was invested 20 years ago. Let’s assume bond yield of 13% (range in 2006 was 11-13.5%) and tax free. Inflation averaged 8.3% from 2006-2026.

So based on that, here is the current purchasing power of that 20M in 2026 if invested in a 20 year bond in 2006.

- Principal amount: 4.5M
- Principal plus coupon payments: 27M
- Principal + if all coupons were reinvested at end of the year at 13% :51M
- If 20M was invested in S&P 500: 69M

* all numbers adjusted for inflation (averaged 8.3% over last 20 years) and foreign exchange for S&P 500. Note while S&P returned 11.4%, the dollar strengthened and thus why that investment beats the KES investment.

While all investments performed well, the safer option, the bond option underperformed the riskier option, the S&P 500 by 18M even when ALL coupons were reinvested.

All I’m doing is challenging you to understand bonds before jumping in based on coupon yield. Bonds will not generate immense wealth compared to the stock market or real estate. They do have a place in your portfolio but for majority of readers here (young men and ladies), think outside the box if you want to create wealth.

Sorry for my long post😅. Engage in the comments section. Tell me how wrong I’m!

[Julians Amboko @AmbokoJH]

Seven months ago I sat down with KRA's Commissioner for Micro & Small Taxpayers & asked him why the authority was frustrating taxpayers ability to use of Sec47 of the Tax Procedures Act's provisions for offsets using tax credits (see quoted tweet).

The Tax Appeals Tribunal has now handed taxpayers a major win on this front.

The facts of the case:

· Easton Petroleum Ltd has a VAT liability of VAT liability of Kes 12,856,678 for which KRA issued agency notice & attached/froze the accounts

· But at the same time, Easton Petroleum Ltd had a VAT credit of Kes 19,709,644.89

· Easton Petroleum Ltd therefore lodged an application on 14th May 2026 requesting for set-off of the liability against the available VAT credits

· KRA, however, failed, neglected or refused to process the set-off, issue a TCC or withdraw the Agency Notices even after 14 days had lapsed

· KRA declined the request on the basis that the
available VAT credit constituted excessive input tax under Sec17(5) of the VAT Act which in its view could have been carried forward to subsequent tax
period

· KRA was effectively saying that the credit did not amount to refundable Tax capable of being off-set against the Tax liability

· The Tribunal countered KRA's argument stating that Sec47 of the TPA vests the Commissioner with the statutory power to apply available tax credit towards & existing tax liability where the circumstances justify such an offset

Musings:

· This is a huge win for taxpayers considering how much this provision, which was crucial in providing cashflow relief to taxpayers, has been stifled
· I find the Revenue Authority's argument strange given that this was a matter falling under the same tax head
· The next hurdle is to push for offsets across tax heads because the resistance there is quite significant

[xeldec @xeldec]

this is how life really works. someone is gonna extend their hand back. so never stop putting yourself out there

[Kagan @KaganTech]

Every year Jason Statham puts out a movie where he plays Jason Statham... He seeks vengeance for some ill action that's none of his business and gets it. Every year I watch it knowing exactly what will happen.

Mutiny done and dusted. See you again next year with the exact same storyline 🤣

[Joshua Okayo @okayojoshua]

Compare and contrast. Priorities.

[Joshua Okayo @okayojoshua]

We have been marginalized, no?

@gabrieloguda @gpdkaluma NO?

[Dennis Ohuru @OhuruDen]

1⃣ The second stretch of my Kenyan roadtrip is done. 🚗☑️ A 🧵

Nairobi ➡️ Narok ➡️ Kisumu ➡️Kakamega ➡️ Kitale ➡️Eldoret ➡️ Nyahururu ➡️ Nyeri ➡️ Nanyuki ➡️ Meru ➡️ Embu ➡️ Nairobi.

1,488 km. 26 counties. A lot of stories. 🇰🇪 Read on.