City Hall official seeks out-of-court tax deal with KRA

Politics and policy

Mr Jimmy Kiamba, suspended Nairobi County chief finance officer. PHOTO | FILE  

By SANDRA CHAO-BLASTO, schao@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• KRA claims that the suspended Nairobi chief finance officer Jimmy Kiamba failed to fully declare and pay taxes between 2007 and 2013, during which time he has only been declaring employment income in his returns.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is negotiating an out-of-court settlement with suspended City Hall finance chief Jimmy Kiamba, who it accuses of failing to declare and pay taxes for the past eight years.

The High Court on Monday gave KRA and Mr Kiamba two days in which to record a settlement on the matter, which could see Mr Kiamba pay millions of shilling in back taxes if he admits liability.

KRA claims that the suspended Nairobi chief finance officer failed to fully declare and pay taxes between 2007 and 2013, during which time he has only been declaring employment income in his returns.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is also investigating Mr Kiamba over suspicion that he is involved in corrupt deals.

Last week, the taxman obtained court orders freezing the CFO’s bank accounts, pending a complete tax assessment.

Five of the accounts are with CfC Stanbic Bank while two accounts are held at the Co-operative Bank. He also operates one account each at Standard Chartered Bank, Equity Bank and Gulf African Bank.

The taxman claims Mr Kiamba owes Sh98.3 million in unpaid taxes for the financial years 2010 to 2013. The sum is said to be exclusive of tax assessments for the financial years 2006 to 2009, which are still being reviewed.

When the matter was mentioned on Monday, Mr Kiamba through his lawyer Philip Nyachoti told Justice Fred Ochieng’ that he was engaged in negotiations with KRA.

“We are negotiating and we hope to record settlement on July 1,” said Mr Nyachoti.

KRA’s lawyer Okello Ogello confirmed the ongoing negotiations to the court.

READ: City Hall official who lives like a king on Sh85,000 pay

A consent between the parties could lift the current freeze orders and provide Mr Kiamba access to his bank accounts after being locked out since November 2014.

The EACC had also obtained earlier orders from the High Court freezing the accounts for six months pending investigations into corruption allegations.

But when the corruption watchdog applied for an extension last week of the freeze order for a further six months, Justice Mbogholi Msagha declined to grant it arguing that the EACC had failed to serve Mr Kiamba with the initial orders yet he was adversely affected because he could not transfer, withdraw or make deposits into the accounts.

Justice Msagha ruled that the corruption watchdog had failed to provide enough evidence of fraudulent acquisition that would warrant a further freeze on the accounts.