The National Treasury and Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi (centre) with youths during a public engagement exercise on the Budget and Finance Bill 2026 in Rongai, Kajiado County on May 14, 2026.
As the clock ticked toward the closure of public participation on the Finance Bill 2026 on Monday evening, Kenyan youths were not gathering in town halls, government offices, or public rallies. Instead, many were glued to their phones.
Since last weekend, thousands of young Kenyans have been mobilising online across platforms like TikTok livestreams, X threads, WhatsApp groups, Instagram reels, and Telegram channels. They have been reading the Finance Bill, dissecting tax clauses, sharing participation links, and submitting views through Parliament’s online portal.
Unlike traditional civic engagement associated with rallies, press briefings, or public barazas, this mobilisation unfolded almost entirely online, driven by Gen Z youths armed with smartphones, hashtags, and civic education threads.
Across platforms, users circulated simplified summaries of the Bill, translated complex legal jargon into ordinary language, and explained how proposed taxes could affect ordinary citizens. “This affects all of us” became a recurring refrain.
What began as scattered conversations about taxation has evolved into one of the most visible youth-led digital civic movements since the Finance Bill 2024 protests that triggered nationwide demonstrations.
This year’s public participation process has seen an unprecedented wave of online mobilisation, amid growing concern that the Finance Bill targets a generation already grappling with unemployment, high living costs, and economic uncertainty.
Among those mobilising citizens online was Allans Ademba, founder of the “TUKO KADI” initiative, who on Monday morning posted the public participation link urging Kenyans to engage with the proposals in the bill.
Allans Ademba, 29, the man behind ‘Uko Kadi?’.
“Public participation into the Finance Bill 2026/2027 ends today,” Ademba posted on X, encouraging citizens to either support or oppose the provisions.
Among the most contested proposals is the 25 per cent excise duty on mobile phones, which many youths fear will make smartphones, repairs, and digital tools more expensive.
Others have opposed the proposed five per cent withholding tax on digital content monetisation, arguing that creators already face unstable incomes and high production costs.
The 20 per cent withholding tax on betting winnings has also sparked backlash. Concerns have also emerged over proposals requiring virtual asset service providers to share user data with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), raising fears over financial privacy.
Additional opposition has been directed at taxes on digital transactions, banking charges, housing, and everyday commodities, which many say would deepen economic strain.
Young women display placards during a public engagement exercise on the Budget and Finance Bill 2026 in Rongai, Kajiado County on May 14, 2026.
For 25-year-old Ellen Kawila, a Gen Z civic educator and content creator based at the Coast, the most striking feature of the mobilisation is its lack of central leadership.
“There is no leader behind this mobilisation,” she said. “This is a civic education exercise because all of us are taxpayers and all of us are affected.”
That decentralised structure has become a defining feature of the campaign, with youths independently sharing civic education materials, tax breakdowns, and participation links across platforms.
Kawila traces the movement’s roots to the Finance Bill 2024 protests, which politically awakened many young people frustrated by unemployment and rising cost of living.
She says she did not set out to become a content creator, but was pushed into civic education by economic realities.
“I started creating content during the Finance Bill 2024 discussions because young people needed civic education,” she said. “I did not start because I wanted fame or money.”
Since then, her platforms have focused on explaining public debt, audits, government spending, and taxation to young audiences. But she says the work has also exposed her to threats and intimidation.
“Every morning you wake up to threats,” she said. “Some people support the government agenda and they don’t like what we are doing online.”
Political analysts say this shift reflects how social media has transformed civic participation among younger generations, turning online platforms into spaces for news, debate, and mobilisation.
Short explainer videos
On TikTok, creators produce short explainer videos breaking down tax proposals clause by clause, while others use humour and storytelling to illustrate how the measures could affect rent, transport, and daily expenses.
Kenya’s youth unemployment crisis continues to deepen, with many graduates unable to secure stable jobs.
As formal opportunities shrink, many have turned to the digital economy through content creation, freelancing, betting, cryptocurrency trading, and influencer marketing. For many, the internet is no longer just social — it is an economic lifeline.
This explains the anxiety surrounding several clauses in the Finance Bill 2026 like concern over financial privacy. The Bill proposes expanded access to financial transactions data, raising fears among mobile money users.
Kawila said many Kenyans trust digital platforms with sensitive personal information without fully understanding the risks.
“People trust these systems with their identification cards and private details,” she said. “Now there is fear that citizens’ information may no longer remain private.”
Concerns have also emerged in cryptocurrency communities, where users fear increased surveillance after proposals requiring virtual asset service providers to submit user data to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Lucas Mwangi, a 24-year-old computer science student, said many youths turned to crypto for financial autonomy.
Participants during a public engagement exercise on the Budget and Finance Bill 2026 in Rongai, Kajiado County on May 14, 2026.
“If you want to protect your money, you put it in crypto,” he said. “Crypto is based on privacy. If you interfere with that privacy, then the essence of cryptocurrency becomes useless.”
Social media influencer and civic educator Charity Waweru, known as “GenZ Baddie,” questioned the fairness of raising taxation amid strained public services.
“We have been paying taxes but life keeps getting harder,” she said on TikTok.
She pointed to struggling hospitals, education, and insecurity, questioning why citizens should bear higher tax burdens while services remain under pressure.
Political observers say social media has now become a civic space where accountability debates unfold in real time. According to Kawila, some officials are unsettled by this shift.
“They are used to social media being about propaganda and politics,” she said. “Now young people are using it for civic education and accountability.”
Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has defended the Finance Bill 2026, addressing public concerns over the proposed 25 per cent excise duty on mobile phones, which has sparked debate over its impact on affordability and digital access.
He clarified that the proposal has been widely misunderstood and does not introduce a new tax, but rather restructures an already existing system of multiple levies.
According to Mbadi, mobile phones are currently subject to several taxes at different stages of importation and distribution, creating what he described as a heavy cumulative burden of about 55.5 per cent.
He explained that the reform is intended to simplify this system by consolidating all charges into a single tax applied at the point of phone activation.
“Let me now address some of the issues that have not been accurately reported on. And when I finish, you can raise questions,” he said, adding that “the proposal does not introduce a new tax on mobile phones” and that “these taxes and levies cumulatively create an aggregate tax burden of approximately 55.5 per cent.”
He defended the proposed tax changes on Monday as a simplification and rationalisation measure aimed at easing pressure on traders and improving efficiency in the mobile phone supply chain.
He said the current system involves multiple layers of taxation at importation and distribution, including VAT, excise duty, import duty and other levies, which he argued create inefficiencies.
Under the new proposal, these would be replaced by a single 25 per cent excise duty collected at the point of activation.
“We are replacing that, all that complicated system, with a simple one,” he said, adding that “the time the phone is brought and is being activated is when you pay one single tax, that is excise duty at 25 per cent.”
He also questioned the criticism, stating, “Tell me how that makes phones more expensive than the current arrangement.”
John Mbadi the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning.
Mr Mbadi said the Finance Bill 2026 is anchored on fairness, equity and simplicity to ensure wider compliance and equal contribution from all taxpayers.
He also addressed proposed reporting rules for virtual asset service providers, noting that the rapid growth of digital assets has created regulatory gaps in the tax system.
He said virtual assets are now a significant income-generating sector and must be integrated into existing tax frameworks like traditional businesses.
“Virtual assets is a new phenomenon in town,” he said, “anything new and it is producing revenue and producing income must also be subjected to tax in the spirit of fairness and equity.”
He further noted that the absence of clear reporting rules has made it difficult to ensure compliance in the emerging digital assets sector. He said the proposal is aimed at extending existing financial accountability standards to the industry.
“The proposal is aimed at extending existing financial accountability standards to the industry,” Mbadi said, “it seeks to introduce reporting and record keeping principles that are already common within traditional financial and commercial activities.”
Young people who previously avoided public participation forums are now actively engaging with policy discussions online. However, despite rising participation, many remain sceptical about whether their submissions will influence policy outcomes.
“Our systems are weak and they do not work,” Kawila said.
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