President William Ruto | Photo: Courtesy
President William Ruto praised the youth occupying the online space for doing a good job fending for themselves, and ordered the proposed tax on content creators be dropped from the controversial Finance Bill, 2023.
Timothy ‘Njugush’ Kimani and Eddie Butita, two high-flying content creators whom President Ruto commended for blazing the trail for many young people in the sector, were specifically singled out by the president.
A collage of Eddie Butita (left) and Timothy ‘Njugush’ Kimani (right) | Photos: Courtesy
A YouTube partnership with the Kenyan government has enabled the two content creators – as well as others within the same field – to monetize their work online.
Thus, the President stated – albeit lightly – that Butita and Njugush were making more money online than he does in the house on the hill.
To enable the youth to continue earning a decent living through their crafts, he directed Parliament’s Finance and ICT Committee to revisit the clause on taxing digital content creators in the proposed Finance Bill, 2023.
“I know there is a proposal in this year’s budget on digital content and creator. I have told the ICT and Finance committee to work on it. Let’s them give a bit more space, let us allow them wajipange alafu baadaye si sisi wote tutalipa ushuru,” he said.
The Finance Bill, 2023 had proposed, among a raft of other issues that came under heavy criticism from the public, a 15% withholding tax on income generated from digital content.
“A person who is required to deduct the digital asset tax shall, within twenty-four hours after making the deduction, remit the amount so deducted to the Commissioner together with a return of the amount of the payment, the amount of tax deducted, and such other information as the Commissioner may require,” proposed the Bill.