Kilonzo Mutie

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition-Friedman.
Politology & Climate Action.

[Kilonzo Mutie @mutie_kilonzo]

Just watching Kenya's Debt Cycle by @AfUncensored for the third time and what catches my eye again is the deliberate and unintended effects of government policies.
Insofar as the COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone, no one seems bothered by the devastating effects of the SGR

[Kilonzo Mutie @mutie_kilonzo]

I am having a little thought, that Africa and Asia should consider founding a different tournament.

The current FIFA World Cup rigs them from winning fairly.

#Worldcup #Egypt #Argentina #argentinavsegypt

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

Kenya has introduced a new 25% tax on software subscriptions.

One of the principles of a good tax system is simplicity.

Taxes should be easy to understand. Easy to comply with. And inexpensive to administer.

Finance Act 2026 has introduced new rules for software subscriptions.

• The Act now classifies payments for software licences and software subscriptions as royalties.

- As a result, every time you pay an overseas software company, you are now required to withhold 20% tax and remit it to KRA.

- Then pay the software company the remaining 80%.

For example.

Suppose you pay Google, Amazon or Microsoft USD 1,000 every year for software subscriptions.

The law says:
• Confiscate 20%, USD 200.
• Remit it to KRA.

Then pay the software company USD 800.

There is only one problem, however.
- Software subscriptions are paid either in full or not at all.

Google does not care that you have complied with the Kenyan tax laws. You either pay them 1,000 USD or go home.

So what happens to continue using the software and keep KRA happy?

- You pay Google their full USD 1,000.

In doing so, KRA treats the USD 1,000 as the net amount after withholding tax. That means the original invoice is deemed to have been USD 1,250. How?

Ulikua unaangalia mwalimu na ruler ukiuliza hesabu ya cross multiplication itakusaidia aje maishani. Ona Sasa.

If USD 1,000 = 80%,
Then 100% = USD 1,250.

The withholding tax therefore becomes USD 250.

Meaning:
• Google gets their full USD 1,000.
• Then you go back to your pocket to pay KRA USD 250.

Total software cost = USD 1,250.

In effect, the law has quietly introduced a 25% tax on many software subscriptions.

Even if a small taxpayer genuinely wanted to comply, how exactly are they supposed to comply when the giant software company insists on being paid in full?

This is the new law. Adjust accordingly.

[Macharia Njeru @MachariaNjeru]

Watu wa majani chai Mpo? At last week's Mombasa tea auction, Rwandan tea fetched an average of Sh354.75 per kilogramme. Kenyan tea fetched Sh299.28.
This is Kenya, the historic home of East African tea, with a brand built over generations, being outpriced by a smaller neighbour at our own auction.
Why? A Sh2.28 levy introduced on every kilo of exported tea since May 1 has pushed buyers toward Rwandan, Ugandan and Tanzanian alternatives. One industry leader said producers from those countries "are smiling all the way to the bank," while Kenyan tea struggles to find buyers. Last week alone, 1,600 tonnes of KTDA tea went unsold.
Stakeholders are now asking the government to scrap a levy worth roughly Sh1.2 billion a year, rather than watch the entire industry and the smallholder farmers who depend on it sink.
This is what happens when every new tax is designed around how much revenue it raises, never around what it costs the economy. We taxed our way out of our own market.
Farmers did not create this problem. Someone did.

[Ike Ojuku @IkeOjuku]

Jimmy Wanjigi saw it coming. Go for your monies. This administration has gone rogue.

[Mzalendo Mūtemi wa Kīama @MutemiWaKiama]

By David Ndiritu Mwangi:

If your business uses Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoom, Salesforce, or ANY cloud software from abroad, you NEED to read this.

The Finance Act, 2026 has quietly dropped a tax bomb that will hit your bottom line. The government has officially expanded the definition of "Royalty" under the Income Tax Act, and it now catches a broad range of software related payments.

What does this mean for you?
Previously, there was a grey area around whether software licenses, maintenance fees, and SaaS subscriptions were subject to withholding tax. That grey area is GONE.

The new law now explicitly classifies the following as Royalties:
- Payments for ANY software (whether custom-built or off-the-shelf)
-License fees, development fees, training fees, AND support/maintenance fees
- Payments related to digital payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)—even if called "service fees" or "processing fees"

The Cost Impact

Because these are now royalties, you are required to withhold tax at 20% for non-resident providers (or 5% for local providers).

Here is the painful part: Most global tech giants (like Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce) do NOT accept "net" payments. They want their full invoice amount.

As such you need to grossup the invoice amount.

Example:

Your Google Workspace annual bill: USD 1,200 (this is what Google must receive)

Withholding Tax due (20%): USD 300 (calculated on the grossed-up amount)

Gross amount YOU must pay: USD 1,200 ÷ 0.8 = USD 1,500

Amount paid to Google: USD 1,200

WHT paid to KRA: USD 300

That is a 25% increase in the real cost of your subscription!

Who is affected?

-SMEs and Startups relying on affordable cloud tools

-IT Consultants and Digital Agencies

-Banks and Fintechs using payment gateways

- Any company with a foreign software subscription

#FinanceAct2026 #KenyaTax #SaaS #DigitalEconomy #KRA #TaxUpdates #KenyanBusiness #StartupKE #Accounting #WithholdingTax #ITCosts #BusinessTips #TaxCompliance

[Cyprian, Is Nyakundi @C_NyaKundiH]

They are now telling Kenyans that government eyeing SACCO money will be a big win for savers, which is the kind of comedy you hear when a hyena enters a goat shed and calls it a security partnership 😂😂😂😂😂

A broke government that has borrowed everywhere, taxed everything, sold public assets, crowded out SMEs through banks and now wants SACCO money cannot suddenly be marketed as a blessing to savers.

SACCO members did not save slowly from salaries, biashara, farming, boda rides, police pay, nursing shifts and teaching jobs so Treasury could arrive with a PowerPoint and call their private sacrifice infrastructure financing.

This debate is very simple, because government should not compete with ordinary Kenyans for SACCO money, loans and credit in the last financial corner where citizens were still breathing.

Calling this a big win for SACCOs is like telling a man that the thief measuring his door at night is doing free security assessment.

[Moe @moneyacademyKE]

The World Bank has given Kenya more than 10 conditions before it can access the next round of loans.

Here are 10 of the main conditions explained in simple terms.

Thread below:

[Okiya Omtatah Okoiti @OkiyaOmtatah]

The question is not whether Kenya may belong to the IMF or the World Bank. The question is whether the Bretton Woods Agreements Act, a statute enacted at independence in 1963 may continue, after the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, to authorise treaty implementation, borrowing, public expenditure, tax exemptions, and institutional immunities in a manner that weakens judicial control of public power, limits access to justice and information, and displaces the constitutional architecture of accountable public finance.

While the Act may have served a lawful purpose at the time of its enactment in 1963, its continued operation must now be assessed against the normative framework of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.

To the extent that its purpose or effect is inconsistent with the Constitution, the provisions must be read down, adapted, or declared invalid.

Accordingly, even if the Act was constitutionally unobjectionable at independence, its continued effect in the post 2010 constitutional order cannot be sustained where it undermines or derogates from constitutional requirements.

[Moe @moneyacademyKE]

The audit reveals that Finsprint, a private firm involved in the SHA payment system, deducts a 2% fee from every payment made to hospitals before the money is sent.

Strangely, it also says the firm's majority shareholder has no verifiable address.

[Cyprian, Is Nyakundi @C_NyaKundiH]

The signs of a sovereign odious debt default are now very clear, even for those who have no brains, because a government that has borrowed everywhere, taxed everything, sold public assets, squeezed workers through deductions and now wants SACCO savings is no longer looking for development money, it is looking for survival money.

Banks built a comfortable debt circle with government, where lending to the state became easier, safer and more rewarding than taking risks with SMEs, traders, farmers, contractors, manufacturers and ordinary Kenyans trying to keep their biasharas alive.

That relationship slowly choked the real economy, because banks preferred government paper, Treasury kept borrowing, SMEs were starved of credit, small borrowers were punished, and Kenyans who could no longer breathe inside the banking system ran back to SACCOs.

SACCOs became the last refuge for people abandoned by banks, the place where teachers, police officers, nurses, boda riders, matatu people, farmers, mama mbogas and small traders could still save slowly, borrow with dignity and keep families moving.

Now the same government that helped banks turn debt into a feeding system is following Kenyans into SACCOs, looking at the savings people built from salaries, farming, biashara, side hustles and painful monthly deductions.

This is the last nail.

SACCO money is not idle Treasury money waiting to be touched, it is private sacrifice by ordinary Kenyans who saved for school fees, land, homes, hospital bills, emergencies, small businesses and survival in an economy already squeezed by taxes, loans and bad policy.

A government that cannot explain where borrowed billions went cannot be trusted with SACCO billions, especially when the same infrastructure language has already been used for years to hide wastage, inflated contracts, brokers, political friends and budget games.

This is how a country tells you quietly that lenders are tired, banks are already overfed on government debt, taxes are no longer enough, public assets have been lined up, and the last pool of money outside Treasury’s direct hands is now being targeted.

The money is finished, and now they are following Kenyans into the last safe corner they had left.

[Moe @moneyacademyKE]

A Bill before Parliament seeks to require internet providers to assign every user a unique internet meter number, track usage in real time, and submit annual records to the Communications Authority.

ICJ Kenya has raised concerns that the proposal could enable mass surveillance and weaken privacy protections

[Cyprian, Is Nyakundi @C_NyaKundiH]

After SACCOs, Banks And M-Pesa Are Next As Kenyans Become Guarantors For A Debt Crisis They Never Ate

Kenyans must stop asking why Kenya has not defaulted and start asking who is being prepared to carry the default when the music finally stops.

Ghana was here.

Sri Lanka was here.

Zambia was here.

Argentina was here.

Lebanon was here.

The script is always the same, because a broke government borrows until lenders get tired, taxes until citizens are dry, leans on banks until credit disappears, pushes pain into pensions and domestic savings, then tells the public that sacrifice is needed to save the country.

That is why the SACCO story should scare Kenyans more than they currently seem scared, because SACCO savings are not government money, they are the private sweat of teachers, police officers, nurses, farmers, matatu people, boda riders, mama mbogas, small traders and workers who ran there after banks abandoned them.

In every default story, the government does not stand alone at the edge of the cliff, because it drags citizens there as guarantors through inflation, taxes, currency pain, bank losses, pension restructuring, frozen credit and forced patriotic nonsense dressed up as national recovery.

Banks already formed a comfortable debt circle with government, where lending to Treasury became safer and sweeter than lending to SMEs, which slowly choked biashara, starved the real economy and turned ordinary Kenyans into beggars inside their own banking system.

Now the same government that fed banks with public debt is walking into SACCOs, looking at the last pool of money ordinary Kenyans still controlled after taxes, deductions, mobile money charges, fuel prices, school fees and rent had already eaten their pockets.

The anus cannot be stitched to stop diarrhoea.

A debt crisis cannot be solved by raiding SACCOs, squeezing banks, eyeing M-Pesa, selling public assets and pretending that every desperate grab is an infrastructure plan.

Ghana called it domestic debt exchange.

Sri Lanka called it restructuring.

Argentina called it emergency controls.

Lebanon left people staring at bank balances they could not freely touch.

Kenya will give it a cleaner name, maybe national development, domestic resource mobilisation, infrastructure financing or patriotic investment, but the meaning will be the same.

The citizens are being prepared as guarantors for debts they never ate.

Kenyans are not angry enough, because if they understood where this road ends, they would know SACCOs are not the final target, they are the warning shot before banks, M-Pesa and every private pool of money still breathing outside Treasury’s hands.

The money is finished.

[KTN News @KTNNewsKE]

A sharp decline in student numbers has hit universities four years after President William Ruto’s new funding model was introduced, exposing deep cracks in the system.

Data from the Ministry of Education shows that university enrolment has fallen to a seven-year low.

https://t.co/hvyjXUewCv

[ephraimnjegafan @ephraimnjegafan]

WHY UHURUTO MUST NOT BE SPARED!
Regime apologists are always ascribing the failures of the government to the Uhuru regime. Ruto promised to form 8 teams to investigate Uhuru and reverse his disastrous economic policies.

[Gaza Notifications @gazanotice]

⚠️Sensitive Content ⚠️

🚨 BREAKING: Palestinian child sustained a severe leg injury after an Israeli strike targeted them while they were collecting water for their family in Gaza. His brother was killed in the same attack.

[Eric @amerix]

KSH 1 Billion:

• Will build 8 of these hospitals.

Kenya loses 3 billion daily (24 hospitals) to corruption.

James stole 600 billion.

[Willis Evans Otieno @otienowill]

If you see an accused person sponsoring hashtags to shape public opinion instead of allowing the justice system to do its work, ask yourself why.

To those being paid to sanitize this tragedy through coordinated hashtags and propaganda, understand this: social media campaigns cannot erase forensic evidence or silence legitimate questions. We've watched this script play out too many times.

Politicians are not your family. They are not your lifelong friends. When the cameras are gone and the headlines fade, it is ordinary young people who are left to bury one another.

Stand together against sociopolitical injustice. Stand against impunity. Stand against bad governance. Reject political sycophancy that treats human life as expendable.

[Eric @amerix]

KSH 1 Billion:

• Will build 13 of these secondary schools, fully equipped.

Kenya is losing 3 billion daily (36 schools) to corruption, lies and deception.

Jameson stole 600 billion.

[NTV Kenya @ntvkenya]

Have you seen…
Anyone arrested, convicted for the Covid Millionaires scandal?
Investigators were to conclude investigations in 21 days
Today is: 2,135 days…

@DannMwangi's #RhymeAtPrime (#RAP)

[Eric @amerix]

Most people are so broke that they don't know how much KSH 1 BILLION is.

Do you people know what KSH 1 BILLION is?

With 1 BILLION:

You spend 100,000 DAILY for 27 YEARS and FIVE MONTHS.

Why, then, do you accept it as normal when politicians steal 600 billion?