What Uhuru’s surprise taxes mean to you

An Mpesa promotion: President Uhuru Kenyatta's new taxes seen as hurting money transfers. [Archive, Standard]

Hard times are ahead for Kenyans if the MPs support some aspects of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s alterations of Finance Bill, 2018 sent back Parliament for reconsideration on Thursday.

The President has proposed an increase in mobile phone transaction excise duty from 10 percent to 20 percent. He also wants excise duty on bank transactions hiked from 12 to 20 percent. If he has his way, Excise duty on telephone and internet data goes up by 15 percent.