Eric Omondi is leading the campaign to oppose the move by the government to impose a 15 per cent tax on digital content creators.
The proposal to charge digital content creators a 15 per cent tax has not been well received by some stakeholders in the sector.
“The Government of Kenya and Parliament, don’t try to tax digital content creators, you have not funded them in that activity, they have used their creativity to create YouTube and Instagram accounts and do their work without any help. So don’t try to tax them,” Eric Omondi said in a video.
Eric Omondi was supported by comedian and entrepreneur Eddie Butita, MCA Tricky, Khaligraph Jones among other celebs.
“I STAND WITH YOU ERIC !! 🦾💯 I heard some analogue senator say that content creators should not be helped by the gafament , then they should not also come for the few cents the content creators make!!” MCA Tricky wrote.
The digital production industry in Kenya has been booming for the past few years with actors earning hundreds of thousands from platforms such as YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram.
This money has attracted the government and now it wants part of this income through the proposed amendments to the 2023 Finance Bill, one of them; being a tax on payments made to digital creators.
If this bill is passed by parliament, income from digital content will be taxed at 15 per cent.
This means that for every Ksh100,00 from the income of creating content in digital networks, you will be taxed Ksh15,000.