Walk down Tom Mboya Street or Kenyatta Avenue on a Sunday afternoon, and Nairobi CBD turns into an open-air studio. Tripods line the pavements, lighting umbrellas catch the afternoon sun, and young photographers approach pedestrians with a pitch and a portfolio on their phones.
Nearby, Gen Z dance crews film social media content between poses. It has become a familiar sight in the CBD, largely because of a policy change made in late 2022.
Governor Johnson Sakaja removed Nairobi’s mandatory photography licensing fee, making it easier for freelance photographers and filmmakers to work on the streets. This meant anyone with a camera and the confidence to approach strangers could turn the CBD into a workplace.
For many, it became more than a hobby. Some photographers charge about KES 100 per shot, using busy weekends to earn money without the cost of running a studio or office.
That could change under the Nairobi City County Finance Act, 2026.
The Act introduces new charges under the Nairobi City County Cultural Heritage Act, including a KES 5,000 daily fee for a “professional” photo shoot. Music video production will also cost KES 5,000 per day, while larger productions will face much higher fees.
The Proposed Production Charges
| Activity | Fee |
| Professional photo shoot | KES 5,000 per day |
| Music-video production | KES 5,000 per day |
| TV programme production | KES 10,000 |
| Television commercial | KES 50,000 |
| Street entertainers, including musicians and acrobats | KES 10,000 per year |
The biggest question is what exactly counts as a “professional” photo shoot.
The schedule does not clearly distinguish between a large commercial production and a photographer taking portraits in the Nairobi CBD. It is also unclear whether the KES 5,000 charge applies per photographer, crew, location, or day of shooting.
For a solo photographer, the more immediate question may be elsewhere in the same schedule.
Under the First Schedule’s “Professional, Technical, and Financial Services” category, a single employee or professional falls under a KES 10,000 annual fee. A similar KES 10,000 charge applies to a person operating individually with one computer or machine.
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Photographers are not specifically mentioned in either category. Instead, the schedule uses broad terms covering professionals, technicians, and other individual operators.
This raises a practical question: which category applies to a photographer working alone on Tom Mboya Street, if any?
Is the KES 10,000 annual fee the relevant charge for a solo photographer? Does the KES 5,000 daily photo shoot fee also apply when they take portraits for paying customers? The legislation does not clearly explain how these charges apply.
The same ambiguity affects content creators. A dance video filmed on a Sunday could potentially be treated as music video production, while a photographer documenting the dancers could be considered to be conducting a professional photo shoot.
There are also separate filming charges from the Kenya Film Classification Board, including KES 5,000 for categories such as music videos and KSh 1,000 per filming day.
It is not clear from the county’s current fee schedule whether these charges would apply in addition to the new county fees.
The county has a legitimate reason to regulate large productions that block walkways, attract crowds, or require traffic and security management. However, a solo photographer with one camera is very different from a commercial production with a full crew.
Much of the uncertainty could be cleared up by clearly stating which charges apply to individual photographers and small-scale creators, and which apply to organized commercial productions.
For the young creatives who have turned Nairobi’s streets into their workplace, that distinction could determine whether the CBD remains an accessible studio or becomes another place where the cost of working is simply too high.
