The High Court has ordered former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to pay the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Ksh427,269,795.00 for the money he raised to finance his campaigns in 2017.
Justice David Majanja in a ruling dated February 4, 2022, ruled that Kidero had failed to demonstrate how he had received the donations and if all the money went into the campaign.
The taxman conducted an audit on the money Kidero received but he maintained that it had been donated towards his gubernatorial campaign and thus remained immune to taxation.
“I agree with the Commissioner that the Respondent failed to discharge his burden as the evidence on record could not support the conclusions reached by the Tribunal.
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“Consequently, the Tribunal erred in imposing on the Commissioner the burden of disproving the Respondent’s contention that the KES 423,000,000.00 was election campaign contributions when he had not provided sufficient evidence to surmount his obligation to establish this source of income,” said Justice Majanja.
The audit by KRA further revealed that Kidero was receiving the money into the same account as other proceeds from his businesses.
The taxman noted that Kidero and the commissioner had agreed that the money was received from donors to his campaign.
However, they failed to demonstrate whether all the money was used for campaign activities.
“When tasked to avail a bank account for his campaign funds, Kidero furnished the commissioner with names of various contributors and a single-page document titled Statement of Receipts and Expenditure indicating the monies received and expended on various items.
“Dissatisfied with this information, the commissioner raised a tax assessment for KSh427,269,795.00 that precipitated an appeal at the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT),” a statement by the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes (DTD), a department within KRA detailed.
