Nairobi County Governor Mike Sonko, on September 6, agreed to clear up county debts owed to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
A press release shared by the taxman had revealed that Sonko's county owed up to Kshs5.8 billion in accrued withholding taxes.
The revenue authority had summoned Governor Sonko alongside his County Executive in charge of Finance Charles Kerich, Chief Officer for Finance Halkano Waqo and the Acting County Secretary Leboo Morintant.
“KRA management met the Nairobi City County leadership team sought to be allowed to immediately make part payment of the amount due as a show of good faith in their attempt to regularize all their tax matters,” read an excerpt of the statement from KRA.
According to KRA, some of the tax arrears were accrued during previous Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero's tenure, mostly comprising PAYE, withholding Income Tax and Withholding VAT.
Sonko agreed to ensure that the county was up to date on remittance of all the above to avoid future complications.
The taxman had pointed out that the delays in remittance of withholding taxes had resulted in a major ripple effect, with county suppliers running into trouble when filing their returns.
KRA has in recent days focused on county governments after realization of a pattern that several counties deducted taxes from employees but failed to submit the same.
The revenue authority went on to reveal that Kiambu County under Ferdinand Waititu owed Ksh3.2billion, Amason Kingi's Kilifi county allegedly owed Ksh2 billion, while Okoth Obado’s Migori had Ksh1.3 billion in unsettled tax.
