The High Court on Monday, 24 August 2026, cleared the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya to charge the licence fees in the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations, 2026, while a challenge to those same regulations waits to be heard. Business Daily reports that the judge confirmed orders granted on 13 August and allowed the regulator’s further prayers, and that the Authority told the court 246 licence applications had stalled because it could not lawfully take payment.
The ruling comes four days before a deadline. Under regulation 30(1), every licence issued under the old Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act stays valid for sixty days from the day the new regulations appeared in the Kenya Gazette, on 29 June 2026. Operators must file under the new regime inside that window, and since Monday must pay the new fees to do it.
Three orders, not one
Justice William Musyoka granted leave on 20 July 2026 and directed that it operate as a stay of the entire licensing regulations. The Authority applied on 29 July to discharge it. In a ruling on 7 August, the judge refused, and narrowed the stay instead to the fee increases in the Second Schedule and the capital thresholds in the Third.
Everything else returned to force that day.
The fee suspension ran from 20 July. Monday’s ruling is effectively ending it.
Make tech-ish your favourite source
Star us on Google — you'll see more tech-ish in Top Stories and AI results.
The case is Judicial Review E251 of 2026, brought by Thomas Buckley Opar Owuor and Ken Brance against the Prime Cabinet Secretary, the Authority and the Attorney General. Submissions are due on 21 September and judgment on 2 October 2026. For at least five weeks, money will be collected under fees no court has ruled on.
Owuor told the court he is a gambling consultant and an Advocate of the High Court. Musyoka noted that neither applicant holds a gambling licence, which raised a question over their standing, and left it undecided because the Authority had not pressed it. The industry’s relief on fees rests on a case whose competence the judge has already flagged.
The fees the public saw, and the fees that became law
The Authority published draft regulations on 18 March 2026 and took comments until 13 April. That draft is still on the regulator’s website. Set beside Legal Notice 111, signed on 29 June, it shows the numbers moving after consultation closed.
| Draft, March 2026 | Gazetted, June 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Online bookmaker, licence fee | KES 8,000,000 | KES 50,000,000 |
| Online casino, licence fee | KES 6,000,000 | KES 50,000,000 |
| Online lottery, licence fee | KES 6,000,000 | KES 20,000,000 |
| Online bookmaker, annual operating fee | KES 3,000,000 | KES 5,000,000 |
| Online gambling, licence term | 3 years | 1 year |
| Online bookmaker, gambling capital | KES 50,000,000 | KES 100,000,000 |
| Public lottery, gambling capital | KES 50,000,000 | KES 150,000,000 |
| Bingo, gambling capital | KES 500,000 | KES 5,000,000 land, KES 50,000,000 online |
| Commercial prize competition, gambling capital | KES 1,000,000 | KES 100,000,000 |
| Hybrid online licence, four products in one permit | KES 12,000,000 | category removed |
An online gambling licence ran for three years in the draft and runs for one in the gazetted Fourth Schedule, so the larger fee will be due every year. The hybrid permit, which covered online casino, bookmaker, lottery and bingo together, did not survive gazettement.
An online bookmaker now pays KES 5 million to apply and KES 50 million for the licence, about $425,000 at KES 130 to the dollar, plus KES 5 million a year to operate. Renewal is KES 12.5 million.
The Association of Gaming Operators Kenya objected to a proposed 10% levy on advertising spend, and the gazetted schedule charges 6%.
The Authority’s affidavit says public participation forums were held and that parliamentary committees were involved in the process.
The applicants also argue the regulations were gazetted by a Cabinet Secretary who lacked the mandate. The draft names Geoffrey Ruku, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes. Legal Notice 111 bears the signature of Musalia Mudavadi, Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, the first respondent. Musyoka decides that question on 2 October.
Why Safaricom is in the courtroom
The 7 August ruling lists two interested parties: the Association of Gaming Operators Kenya, and Safaricom PLC.
Safaricom is there because gambling enforcement in Kenya runs on M-Pesa. The Authority’s affidavits raised the prospect of payment channels being deactivated, and the regulator gave assurances that licensed operators’ paybills would stay on. In April 2025 we covered the previous regulator ordering Safaricom to cut off paybill numbers for 58 betting platforms. The enforcement tool belongs to a listed telco rather than to a court.
The Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 now put it in law. Legal Notice 112 bars a payment service provider from processing or settling gambling payments without the Authority’s approval, and lets the Authority revoke that approval. An operator that loses it cannot take money.
The rules already in force are the technical ones
The licensing rules were gazetted alongside legal notices on advertising, conduct of operations, foreign-based operators and an appeals tribunal. None is under challenge, and all have been law since June.
Legal Notice 112 requires a licensee, before it starts trading, to confirm integration with the Kenya Revenue Authority’s tax system and with the Authority’s central monitoring system, and to declare every paybill it will use. We reported in June on Director-General Peter Karimi describing that monitoring platform at the Gaming Tech Summit Africa as a plan. Connecting to it is now a condition of trading.
The same regulations require player data encrypted in transit and at rest, and stored and processed on servers inside Kenya unless the Authority grants a written exemption. Kenya has data localisation for gambling operators, and it arrived without argument while the fees went to court.
What happens on Friday
The sixty-day window runs from publication. The gazette supplement is dated 29 June, which puts the deadline on Friday 28 August. The Authority has described it as running from 30 June, a day later. Both readings fall inside this week. An operator that has not applied by then is trading without a valid licence, and its paybill approval becomes discretionary.
The Authority has undertaken to refund fees if the court strikes the regulations down. Regulation 27 says fees are not refundable where a licence is cancelled or revoked or an operator stops trading, which does not cover a court quashing the schedules, so the undertaking stands outside the text rather than against it. The next important date is 2 October 2026, when Musyoka delivers judgment.
Join the discussion