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By Victoria Fakiya from Techpoint
Lagos, Nigeria: Kenya just unveiled its own answer to TikTok, and this one has government backing. Yesterday, April 30, 2026, Mzawadi Group, a Kenyan tech company, launched UrbanTok at the Connected Africa Summit in Nairobi.
Pitching it as a homegrown video and livestreaming platform built for creators to actually make money.
A top government official, ICT PS John Tanui, was right there framing it as a sovereignty play, basically saying Kenyan creators shouldn’t have to depend on foreign platforms and payment systems to earn.
The platform is already live on the web with features like paywalled content, eCommerce, and crowdfunding, although its Android app quietly disappeared from the Play Store just as it launched.
At its core, UrbanTok isn’t really trying to beat TikTok on features; it’s trying to fix the money problem. Kenyan creators have long complained about earning through foreign systems like PayPal, dealing with higher gift costs, and being excluded from programmes like TikTok’s Creator Rewards.
UrbanTok’s pitch is simple: keep everything local the payments, the algorithm, the monetisation and make it easier for creators to actually take home what they earn. It sounds compelling. Delivering on it is the real test.
And there’s a reason this matters. TikTok is huge in Kenya, with over 18 million adult users, but the money hasn’t quite matched the scale. Creator earnings are still heavily dependent on brand deals, and many feel the platform profits far more than they do.
That frustration isn’t theoretical; it’s been voiced publicly by creators who feel locked out of real monetisation despite driving engagement. UrbanTok is stepping directly into that gap, positioning itself as the platform that finally closes it.
However, Kenya has flirted with regulating even banning TikTok in the past over content concerns, and there have been earlier attempts at local alternatives like Yafreeka that never really took off. But the global conversation has shifted.
TikTok’s legal battles in the US and wider debates around digital sovereignty have pushed governments, including Kenya’s, to start thinking about ownership of platforms, data, and revenue.
UrbanTok is arriving at that exact moment, though the missing app on launch day shows it’s still a work in progress.
Zoom out, and this is part of a bigger trend: countries trying to build their own digital ecosystems instead of just plugging into global ones. But history isn’t exactly kind to TikTok challengers: most fail because creators go where the audience already is.
UrbanTok’s bet is different: don’t out-algorithm TikTok, out-local it. Whether that’s enough to pull creators and brands away from a platform that already works is the real question.
The launch was the easy part. Now comes the hard one: building a platform people actually stay on.
