Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi revealed on Tuesday, May 26, that the new tax policy in the Finance Bill 2026 would actually reduce the cost of mobile phones.
Speaking during a public participation forum, Mbadi explained that the Bull proposed that mobile phones should only be subjected to one tax - a 25 percent excise duty.
He added that traders will only be required to pay the new tax after the phone has been sold.
"We proposed that the wholesalers buy the phones at cost, without paying any taxes and bring the phone to the shop.
"On the day that the seller gets a client and the phone is activated, that is when they will pay tax, a single tax which is 25 percent excise duty," the Treasury CS reiterated.
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Mbadi revealed that mobile phone traders currently must pay taxes amounting to 55 percent of the initial phone cost.
These include value-added tax, import duty, excise duty, import declaration fee and the Railway Development Levy, which have been done away with in the new Finance Bill.
"When they import phones, they are charged 25 percent import duty, 10 percent excise duty, 16 percent VAT, a 2.5 percent omort declaration fee and a 2 percent Railway Development Levy fee," he explained
The CS called out leaders for spreading false propaganda and insinuating that mobile phones would be more expensive by focusing on the increase of excise duty and not telling Kenyans that the other taxes had been scrapped.
He warned the leaders of the Opposition against using propaganda to incite the youths and Kenyans to reject the Finance Bill 2026.
Mbadi cautioned youths against heeding the call by the leaders and advised them to read the Finance Bill 2026 on their own and raise genuine concerns that they have.
He maintained that he was willing to address the real concerns and not issues that are not contained in the proposed bill.
