Call to exempt people with disabilities from digital tax
Gospel singer Akwii Lucy and visual disability advocate Mercy Chiluhi are among the digital content creators with visual disabilities in the country. They both use their smartphones to create and share content on social media platforms.
Their phones, however, are not typical, as not all phone manufacturers produce the type of phones they require. As a result, they say that in addition to purchasing the phones, they also spend money on a program that they install to make them more user-friendly.
“We have a program called Job Access With Speech, which is a talking assistant installed in a phone or computer, and the user gives it a command, and it reads for the user. It does automatic enlargement for low-vision users, which we call large print, but for totally blind users, it talks back and reads everything giving them commands on what to do,” Lucy explains
The programs require a lot of space and adaptability. That means they buy high-tech smartphones that can use the program to help them navigate the complexities that come with their disabilities.
“The background of my smartphone has to be black, so white font on black screen. I cannot operate on black on white because it is too bright. At the same time, it ought to have a talking device,” she adds.
Assistive devices like adjustable colour and size of text font and images, text-to-speech synthesis, audio descriptions, and braille are some of the features digital content creators with visual disabilities require in their smartphones to make them user-friendly.
“I record my songs using my smartphone. I also do disability awareness messages and teach people how to use braille machines to read and write,” Mercy says.
Just like Mercy, the smartphone that Lucy uses to generate and distribute digital content must have talking devices to ease operation.
"As a content creator, I occasionally act and discuss our culture. Sometimes I take African music and dance and sing along with it," she explains.
According to Section 2(b) of the Income Tax Act, offering payment entertainment, social, artistic, educational, or any other material electronically through affiliate marketing where the content creator earns a commission whenever their audience clicks on the product displayed or subscription services .
Lucy and Mercy are concerned after President William Ruto signed Finance Bill 2023, which imposes a 5% withholding tax on digital content creators. They say the deduction will make it difficult for them to earn.
“I find it hard because we need a market to sell a product. People are crying about the economy and life is unpredictable,” says Mercy.
As for Lucy, the law will affect them vigorously because of the extra production cost they incur.
“For us the blind people, we have to hire video editors at a fee while a person who is not blind will go direct to their phones, download the video editor and do it by themselves.”
According to the Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities, there is a need for the government to embrace women with disabilities and listen to their concerns.
“We have women and girls with disabilities who are talented in content creation and if the tax is going to affect them, then that talent is going to die,” says Ms Godliver Omondi, nominated Member of County Assembly of Kakamega.
Godliver further says that if the government imposes the 10 per cent tax on imported cellular phones as in section 47 (a) (xii) without exempting people with disabilities, especially women, then there is a high chance that they will not sustain the production cost of their content.
According to Solomon Bukhala, the head of programs at the Kenya Society for the Blind, people with visual disabilities would suffer the most because the bill is not sensitive to their plight.
“Once you impose tax on cellular phones, what you are indicating is that any other person using those phones has to pay more, hence the majority of persons with visual disabilities who definitely use those phones because they have to activate the talkback will suffer more.”
The National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) vets people with disabilities who should be tax-exempt, gives them a certificate and clearance exempting them from tax in collaboration with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Neither Akwii Lucy nor Mercy Chiluhi were exempt from paying taxes during our interview. They said to have paid registration fees months before our interview and are yet to receive a response from the council.
