Insight type: Legal Alert

The implementation of the Minimum Tax has been suspended, pending the hearing and determination of various petitions filed before the High Court.

 

 

On 30 March 2021, the President, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, signed into law the Employment (Amendment) Act, 2021 (the Act). The Act was one of 3 Employment (Amendment) Bills introduced in 2019^[1], and it is the only one that has currently been passed into law. The Act came into force on 15 April 2021, following its gazettement through Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 53 (Acts No. 2).

 

On 26 November 2010, the Kenyan and South African Governments entered into a Double Taxation Agreement (the DTA) whose purpose was to ensure resident persons and resident companies avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion with respect to income taxes. The DTA subsequently entered in force on 1 January 2016.

 

 

In March 2021, the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology (MoICT) published amendments to the equity participation requirement contained in the National ICT Policy Guidelines, 2020 (ICT Policy) that was gazetted in August 2020 (the Amendment Notice) that are aimed at providing clarity to the initial policy.

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta, through a special Gazette Notice No. 3076 published on 29 March 2021 (the Gazette Notice), appointed a taskforce primarily assigned with undertaking a comprehensive review and analysis of all power purchase agreements (PPA) entered into between various independent power producers (IPPs) and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) (the Taskforce).

 

Article 20 of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement establishes a Dispute Settlement Mechanism (the DSM) that will be administered by the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes (the Protocol). The Protocol entered into force on 20 May 2019 together with the AfCFTA Agreement, the Protocol on Trade in Goods, and the Protocol on Trade in Services. Notably, the wording of the Protocol borrows heavily from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).

 

The Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Energy, through Gazette Notice No. 2219 published on 12 March 2021, appointed a committee primarily assigned the review and renegotiation the existing power purchase agreements entered into between various independent power producers and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) (the Standing Committee).

 

Status of the Agreement
On 3 November 2020, Kenya and the UK signed the Kenya-UK Economic Partnership Agreement (the EPA) to continue the preferential zero tariff and zero quota trade of goods between the two countries.

 

Following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (the Constitution) the Government of Kenya has been reviewing policies and legislation to align them with the Constitution. The Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife (the Ministry) has released a new Wildlife Policy, 2020 (the Wildlife Policy). The Wildlife Policy updates the existing wildlife policy, published in 1975, and aims to align the current wildlife conservation and management practices and legislation with:

 

Currently, Kenya does not have a legal framework governing digital borrowing. However, with the increasing clamour to rein in rogue operators in the industry, Parliament has stepped in to introduce regulatory supervision of the sector through the Central Bank of Kenya (the CBK).