This archive report was first published on 5 November 2019.
On November 5, 2019, a Nairobi court intervened in a tax dispute between Nairobi County and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), stopping KRA from blocking Sh4.5 billion allocated to the county.
Lawyer Cecil Miller, representing the county, had filed an application at the High Court to quash the order that barred the release of funds. Miller argued that KRA had enforced illegal notices dated September 10, 2019, recovering Sh2 billion from the county's Revenue Fund Account without its knowledge or consent, leaving it with no funds to pay employee salaries and run other county responsibilities.
The county maintained that if the orders were not granted, KRA would continue enforcing the illegal notices, denying it funds required to carry out its mandate to the residents of Nairobi City County and even pay its workforce.
Key respondents in the case included seven banks: National Bank of Kenya, Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited, Kenya Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of Kenya Limited, Equity Bank of Kenya Limited, Co-operative Bank of Kenya Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, and Central Bank of Kenya.
“It was unreasonable for KRA to unilaterally recover Sh2 billion from the County’s revenue fund in recovery of tax due to it without its knowledge, approval and consent,” said Miller.
