Good evening 👋🏽. It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street

These are our stories in today’s newsletter… 

After Banks Won In Court, the Taxman Rewrites the Rules 

By Brian Nzomo

In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that clipped the Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) reach over card payments, the Finance Bill 2026 is moving swiftly to redraw the boundaries of tax law. The dispute that pitted Absa Bank Kenya against KRA, turned on whether interchange fees and payments to global card networks like Visa and Mastercard could be classified as royalties or professional fees under the Income Tax Act. 

KRA had argued that such payments reflected access to proprietary infrastructure and services, while banks countered that they were merely structural flows within a complex, multilateral payment system rather than consideration for identifiable services or intellectual property. 

After conflicting decisions in the High Court and Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the banks, holding that the payments did not meet the legal definitions required to trigger withholding tax. Anchoring its reasoning in strict statutory interpretation, the court made clear that taxation cannot be inferred or expanded through administrative creativity where the law is silent. 

The Finance Bill now seeks to close that gap by explicitly redefining “management or professional fees” to include interchange and merchant service fees, while broadening “royalty” to capture payments for access to payment infrastructure, digital platforms, and recurring-use systems regardless of contractual labels. In effect, the amendments reverse the practical outcome of the ruling, restoring a lost revenue stream for KRA and reintroducing tax exposure for banks and processors. 

Follow our website here for more updates on the Finance Bill 2026…

The Mombasa Properties the State Couldn’t Seize

By Brian Nzomo

The state’s attempt to seize three Mombasa apartments tied to businessman Asif Amirali Alibhai Jetha collapsed this week, after the High Court found the evidence too thin to support forfeiture. Prosecutors had tried to assemble a narrative from scattered deposits, M-Pesa inflows, and Jetha’s earlier criminal case, arguing the properties were the product of illicit activity. But the court found no clear link between those transactions and the acquisition of the apartments, and faulted investigators for relying on suspicion rather than proof. Jetha and his wife, Lyn Henderson, offered a simpler financial story from family money, land purchases, and a profitable sale that funded the apartments, which the court deemed sufficient. The ruling draws a sharp line around the limits of civil forfeiture, underscoring that even a suggestive pattern of transactions cannot substitute for evidence of wrongdoing.

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What You Should Watch!

PROBABLY NOTHING

Separating the signal from the noise. Luno

IN THIS ISSUE (01)  12 May 2026 

• Why put a fork in Bitcoin?

• Are crypto ETFs pure boomer candy?

• Traders are getting excited about moving averages 

THE WEEK IN MARKETS
Last week saw more record highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, fueled by strong Big Tech earnings and AI infrastructure optimism. Apple surged after beating estimates, US jobs data held firm, and US-Iran ceasefire hopes kept stock investors interested. 

Bitcoin clawed its way back to $81K for the first time since January, but ran into the 200-day moving average (~$83K), a “technical boss” of sorts, and, at the time of writing, is figuring out the next move around the $80K price level.

Data correct as at 08 May 2026, 15h00 GMT. 

THE BIG READ 

Someone wants to put a fork in Bitcoin

Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc wants to split the Bitcoin blockchain into a new network called eCash. Reactions have ranged from intrigue to mildly upset to full-on outrage. The main gripe is that the split would also rewrite who owns what on the new network. When a blockchain splits, it creates a new chain that carries the entire history of the old one with it. If you hold 10 BTC (well done) but you would automatically receive 10 eCash on the new network. If you held some BTC back in 2017 when the Bitcoin chain was split into Bitcoin Cash, you would remember receiving some BCH for doing literally nothing. Whether the eCash tokens will be worth anything depends entirely on if people actually use and adopt eCash. Without users, it's a bit like a carnival without the rides. You can buy a ticket and walk in, but there's nothing to do once you're inside.

So why split? The central feature of eCash is the inclusion of Drivechains, a scaling concept Sztorc first proposed in 2015. Drivechains are essentially parallel tracks running alongside the main Bitcoin network, each able to operate under its own rules. The idea is to let developers build new features without forcing the entire Bitcoin network to adopt them.

Here's where things get heated. When the new chain launches carrying all of Bitcoin's history, every balance transfers with it, including Satoshi's 1.1 million Bitcoin, untouched for over a decade. Rather than mirroring that holding in full, Sztorc's plan would assign 600,000 eCash to Satoshi's equivalent addresses and redirect the remaining 500,000 to investors who fund the project before launch.

The whole premise of a decentralised blockchain is that no single person can tamper with it, but this is ultimately a democratic process. The public will decide whether eCash is worth anything at all.

PICTURE THIS 

A line in the sand

Bitcoin is currently locked in a seven-month standoff with a technical boundary that is a favourite among the trading fraternity. The 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) has since 2013 been regarded by many as the border between bear market distribution and bull market momentum. With Bitcoin reclaiming $80K last week, where to next? Red or green?  

Source: TradingView (Bitstamp/Coinbase) · 200D SMA on daily close · 1yr returns from first close above · Months below = consecutive daily closes under 200D SMA · *Originally from research by Isaiah Douglass, MD at Swan Bitcoin

*Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. 

QUICK TAKES 

Circle ripped on regulation news. Who would’ve thought that one of the top performing stocks last week was that of a stablecoin issuer? Circle (CRCL), the company behind USDC saw price spikes of almost 20% last week after a bipartisan compromise on the Clarity Act, the long-awaited US digital asset legislation. The deal here is that Circle is seen as a direct beneficiary of clearer regulatory stablecoin rules. - The Block

Meta just quietly did what it once tried to do loudly. Meta now supports stablecoin payouts to creators in Colombia and the Philippines, using USDC on the Solana and Polygon blockchains, with Stripe handling the payments infrastructure and crypto tax reporting. Seven years ago, Meta's Libra stablecoin announcement triggered a global regulatory panic and a wave of central bank digital currency explorations. This time, no fanfare. - Fortune

Powell's out as chair, but he's not going anywhere. Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed his term as chair ends 15 May, but he will remain on the Board of Governors, the first outgoing Fed chair to do so since 1948. - Reuters

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