The 20% withholding tax question

On the statutory wording, no. The Finance Act 2026 reintroduced the 20% and defined winnings as a payout from a lottery or prize competition by a person licensed under the Gambling Control Act 2025. A sportsbook bet is neither a lottery nor a prize competition, and a casino payout is neither. Professional commentary reads the reintroduction as aimed at operations classified as lotteries and prize competitions. But no KRA guidance confirms the boundary, so treat this as unresolved rather than decided.

We are not telling you the 20% does not apply to you. We are telling you the definition is narrow, the guidance is absent, and any site quoting a confident number on this has gone beyond what the text supports. That includes sites we otherwise rate.

What the definition covers on its face

Payout type	Within the definition on the text	Confidence
Lottery payout by a GCA-2025 licensee	Yes	High, this is what the wording names
Prize competition payout by a GCA-2025 licensee	Yes	High
Sportsbook payout by a licensed bookmaker	Not on the wording	Contested. No KRA guidance
Casino or slots payout	Not on the wording	Contested. No KRA guidance
Payout by an operator with no Kenyan licence	Outside it, since the definition turns on the payer being licensed	The operator has no withholding duty. Your own declaration position is separate

Gross or net of stake

Also open. The Bill contained a proposal to exclude the original stake from the taxable amount. The enacted Act removed it, which leaves it uncertain whether tax would apply to a gross payout or only to the amount above your stake. Under the pre-July-2025 regime it was explicitly net of stake. That clarity is gone.

Why competitors get this wrong in both directions

One well-built Kenyan affiliate models the 20% on net gambling winnings generally, and even admits in its own copy that the enacted text left gross versus net open, then leads with a confident figure anyway.
Another still publishes 12.5% excise on stakes plus 20% on winnings. Both numbers are wrong for 2026: excise is 5% and it sits on deposits, not stakes.
A third simply repeats the pre-2025 position with the old net-of-stake framing, which two Finance Acts have since overwritten.

Google is currently rewarding some of those pages. That is a ranking fact, not a truth signal. If you are using any of them to work out what you owe, check the definition yourself and then talk to a practitioner.

All three charges The 5% you actually see Offshore position

How much tax do I pay on Aviator winnings

Nobody can give you a defensible flat figure. On the statutory wording a crash-game payout is not a lottery or prize-competition payout, so the 20% is questionable, while the 5% on disbursements applies when funds reach your account. Get advice rather than a percentage from a blog.

Does the 20% apply to non-residents too

The reintroduction covers residents and non-residents. The same definitional question about what counts as winnings applies either way.

Where can I read the definition myself

Look at the Finance Act 2026 amendments to the Income Tax Act Third Schedule and the definition of winnings introduced alongside them. Professional summaries from the large accountancy firms cover it, and they agree the target was lotteries and prize competitions.