Why KRA is after Sonko's millions

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko during an interview in his office in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko’s troubles seems far from over as Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) have separately directed that the money held in his accounts at Equity Bank be frozen.

For this, the bank has moved to court, arguing that it is confused as to which of the two agencies it should obey.

From court documents filed on behalf of Equity, the former governor has six accounts, five of which hold Kenya shillings and one is a United States dollar account.

Equity’s legal team says that on November 12, 2025, ARA wrote to the lender indicating that it had appealed a High Court decision, which found that it had not proved that the money in the accounts was illicit.

The lawyers further noted that the agency cautioned the lender that the money should remain intact or else it would bear the consequences of releasing it before the appeal was settled.

On the other hand, KRA wrote to the bank indicating that Sonko’s account had an agency notice over Sh574 million, allegedly unpaid taxes.

It indicated that the notice was issued on September 2, 2025.

KRA said that it was not party to the case between ARA and Sonko, asserting that the notice remained in force until the full amount demanded is settled.

“The Kenya Revenue Authority was not a party to the High Court judgement referred to in your letter, being Anti-Corruption suit No. 16 of 2020, Asset Recovery Agency Vs Mike Sonko Mbuvi Gidion Kioko,” responded KRA’s commissioner in charge of investigations and enforcement.

It added: “In the circumstances, we advise that our agency notices remain in force until the taxes are fully paid or as further directed by the Commissioner.”

In the meantime, Sonko also wrote to the bank demanding that it should release the money to him following the judgment by Justice Nixon Sifuna.

“Consequently, there is now no justification to freeze the monies held in the said accounts, and we shall be grateful if your esteemed Bank could note this, to avoid my unnecessary back and forth over the issue,” wrote Sonko’s lawyers.

Conflicting instructions

Equity now says it is unable to release the money owing to the conflicting instructions. It sued Sonko and ARA.

The bank’s business growth and development manager at its KNUT Branch Gregory Akoth said that it had also written to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), seeking to know if there were any orders freezing the accounts before releasing the money to him.

In her supporting affidavit, EACC said it had a pending forfeiture case against the former governor. She further said that ARA served the bank with orders suspending the implementation of the Justice Sifuna orders for 30 days.

 “Section 97 of the POCAMLA provides that any preservation order and any order authorizing the seizure of the property concerned or other ancillary order which is in force at the time of any decision regarding the making of a forfeiture order under section 92(1) shall remain in force pending the outcome of any appeal against the decision concerned,” said Akoth.

The bank now wants the court to settle the conundrum.