Kenya

Kenya's gambling regime operates under the Gambling Control Act, 2025, implemented through six sets of regulations published between 29 June and 2 July 2026. The licensing fee and capital schedule under the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations 2026 is the subject of an active judicial review, Judicial Review E251 of 2026, with the High Court having narrowed its stay on 7 August 2026 and adjourned a scheduled 2 October 2026 ruling to a 12 October 2026 mention for further directions. Alongside the licensing question, operators face four layered tax obligations: a 15% betting/gaming tax on gross gaming revenue (15% of turnover for lotteries), a 5% deposit excise now extended to horse racing, a 5% withholding tax on withdrawals, and a reinstated 20% withholding tax on winnings under the Finance Act, 2026. Player-protection obligations under the Conduct of Gambling Operations Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112), including real-time self-exclusion for online platforms, remain in force and unchanged.

The Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations 2026 set a KES 5,000,000 application fee and a KES 50,000,000 annual licence fee for online bookmakers, with gambling capital requirements ranging between KES 100,000,000 and KES 2,000,000,000 depending on the activity class applied for. These fee and capital schedules are currently under judicial review in Judicial Review E251 of 2026 before the High Court of Kenya. The court narrowed its earlier stay on the regulations on 7 August 2026 in a decision delivered by Justice W. Musyoka, meaning licence fees and capital requirements remain suspended in part. The matter, originally set for a ruling on 2 October 2026, was adjourned to a mention on 12 October 2026 for further directions after interested parties were given additional time to respond. Until the court rules, the final cost of obtaining and maintaining an online bookmaking licence in Kenya remains legally unsettled, though the underlying licensing structure created by the Gambling Control Act, 2025 and its subsidiary regulations is otherwise operative.

Kenya is the priority sub-Saharan Africa entry point and entry is open: the BCLB-era licence-application moratorium has ended, and the GRA opened its first licensing cycle in July 2026 following the Gambling Control Regulations 2026. Entry requires a locally incorporated Kenyan company with a physical office, Kenyan directors/representatives, KRA tax registration (PIN/VAT), FRC AML registration, and an M-Pesa Pay Bill (requiring a Kenyan bank account and Safaricom commercial agreement). The binding practical constraint is now capital rather than timing: the Third Schedule to the Gambling Control Regulations 2026 sets a KSh 2,000,000,000 gambling capital requirement for the National Lottery licence and a KSh 8,000,000 application fee for the hybrid online licence.

Kenya's gambling tax regime is among Africa's most volatile. Betting tax is 15% of GGR (s29A BLG Act). Excise duty on stakes moved 12.5% → 15% (Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024) → 5% under the Finance Act 2025, with the point of taxation shifted to the transfer of funds from a mobile wallet to a betting account. Withholding tax on winnings was historically 20% (Income Tax Act Cap.472), reframed at 5% on withdrawals under Finance Act 2025. Corporate income tax is 30%.

M-Pesa (Safaricom) is the dominant rail; GRA-licensed operators register as Pay Bills, and KRA has integrated systems with 36 betting firms for real-time monitoring. CBK regulates PSPs and mobile money. FRC supervises AML; gambling operators are reporting institutions under POCAMLA (Cap. 59A). M-Pesa national-ID KYC provides a natural AML foundation.

The Gambling Control Act, 2025 reportedly now explicitly prohibits celebrity and lifestyle advertisements that glamorise gambling. This elevates what had previously been a non-binding BCLB guideline, circulated around May 2025, into an enforceable statutory prohibition. The shift is significant because it converts what was previously a reputational risk for operators continuing celebrity-fronted or lifestyle-glamorising marketing into a direct legal risk under the Act itself. This claim currently rests on a single lower-tier secondary source and would benefit from primary statutory confirmation; it is narrated here as probable-but-unconfirmed pending that verification.

The principal enforcement-adjacent development is procedural: Judicial Review E251 of 2026, brought against the fee and capital schedules in the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations 2026, was adjourned from a scheduled 2 October 2026 ruling date to a mention on 12 October 2026 for further directions, following a request by interested parties for more time to respond. This follows the High Court's narrowing of its earlier stay on 7 August 2026, in a decision by Justice W. Musyoka, under which licence fees and capital requirements remain suspended pending final determination. No enforcement actions, licence suspensions, revocations or penalty decisions against operating licensees were identified in the evidence. The material risk for market entrants is the continuing absence of a finally settled fee and capital schedule, with the next scheduled court date on 12 October 2026 determining whether and when that uncertainty will be resolved.

Outlook is cautiously positive for compliant operators but volatile. The Gambling Control Act 2025 entered force on commencement in August 2025 (recorded 20/26 August 2025), repealing Cap. 131, and the Gambling Regulatory Authority has exercised full regulatory authority since that date; licensing resumed in July 2026 under the Gambling Control Regulations 2026. Direction is tightening (stricter compliance, consumer protection, real-time monitoring), against continued strong market growth. The principal open variable is now fiscal rather than institutional: the final disposition of Finance Bill 2026 and its proposed 20% winnings withholding tax.