From open-source contributor to a cornerstone of Kenya's developer community, Collin Rukundo is a true builder!
As the co-founder of Kesh Labs and BitDevs Nairobi, he’s been at the heart of the ecosystem since day one.
Collin was a first-ever grantee of Btrust and Superlunar, and he co-built Splice Africa (acquired by Tando!).
Now, he’s leveraging his deep technical and regulatory expertise to build the next generation of payments infrastructure in Kenya.
If you want to learn from a pioneer who’s actually building the rails, you NEED to be here. 👇
Register here to get your tickets now: https://t.co/Pz0zrkvknp
🗓️ Conference Dates: 24th–25th June 2026
📍 A.S.K DOME Jamhuri Park Nairobi, Kenya.
🗓️ Kibera Circular Economy Visit: 26th June 2026
For any inquiry email us on: [email protected]@AfribitKibera@TrezorAcademy@GorillaSats@Talo_Africa@dx5ve@bitika_KE@tando_me@CapitalFMKenya
#bitcoinnairobiconference #bitcoinafrica #bitcoinconference #Nairobi #bitcoinnews
@CanaryMugume My brother, so not speak in tongues. If you have an opinion, share it boldly, and if you have news to break, break it with clarity (citing sources). These cryptic messages leave me dizzy
During the Freedom Tech track at the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, Femi Longe, global freedom tech lead at HRF, honors the life and legacy of Hadiya Masieh, a dear friend of HRF and a passionate advocate for financial freedom. Through her work with the Groundswell Project, Hadiya supported women recovering from repression and dedicated her life to helping others rebuild with dignity. Her legacy lives on in the lives she changed, and in the freer, more hopeful future she helped imagine and build.
Watch the full tribute: https://t.co/oXZmcoZhVv
The world's newest physical Bitcoin space — @NodeNBO — has officially opened it's doors!
Located in Kenya 🇰🇪, Node NBO is an event space, a tech lab, and a co-working hub for members of the @GridlessCompute, @fedibtc, @btrust_builders, and @HRF teams.
https://t.co/tgffss1yby
We’ve been on a side-quest, and we have good news from the other side! 40 million Kenyans now have a bitcoin Lightning Address! They didn’t need to sign up for one because they had it this entire time, attached to the phone number in their pocket!
Try it: send bitcoin to [email protected] (254 is optional). The BTC arrives as KES in their M-Pesa. ⚡ EVERY M-Pesa number works. All 40,000,000.
Wallets with LUD-09 support give you a nice clickable link to see your M-Pesa receipt. For example: https://t.co/OK0R62jNWt
And the punishment does not end at PAYE. After being taxed like there is no tomorrow, the Ugandan walks into a digital economy that has been booby-trapped by the same government.
Mobile money: Uganda is the only country in the region that taxes the value of money you withdraw from your own wallet, on top of taxing the service fee. Withdraw UGX 1 million through mobile money and you part with about UGX 16,630 in fees and taxes. Do the same at a bank or ATM and you pay around UGX 3,000. Sending and withdrawing that same UGX 1 million on mobile money costs more than transporting the cash physically across Kampala. Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa do not tax the transaction value at all.
Smartphones: Uganda is the only country in the region that imposes a 10% import duty on smartphones. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria and South Africa charge zero. The result is that 61.7% of Ugandans still use feature phones, while their neighbours scroll into the future.
Airtime and data: 12% excise duty on prepaid and postpaid airtime, plus 18% VAT on top of it. Internet in Uganda remains among the most expensive in East Africa, while data spend per user is one of the lowest on the continent. Translation: we pay the most to use the least.
Rental income: Landlords cough up rental tax separately from PAYE, and individuals are taxed at 12% on gross rental income above UGX 2.82 million annually, with no deductions allowed for actual costs. Landlords do not absorb that cost. They pass it straight onto tenants, which is part of why rent in Kampala has become punishing for ordinary working people. You are taxed on your salary, then taxed again, indirectly, on the roof over your head.
Withholding tax, VAT, fuel levies, environmental levies, the digital service tax on Netflix and YouTube subscriptions, road user fees, parking levies in Kampala, and the famous "service charges" that mysteriously appear at the bottom of restaurant bills. There is no corner of life in this country that has not been monetised, taxed, fined, or assessed.
The net effect is brutal. A Ugandan in formal employment hands over the largest slice of their salary in PAYE earlier than any @jumuiya neighbour, then pays more to send money to their mother, more to access that money, more to call their mother, more to text their mother, more to watch a film to forget their mother is also broke, and more to fill the car they need to drive to see her. By the time the average worker has finished settling all the visible and invisible taxes, what remains is barely enough to fund the dignity of a working person.
Meanwhile, those collecting the taxes are flying private, building palaces in Bukedea, and skipping the bills at international summits. Money goes up. Suffering trickles down. That is the actual model.