Last week, the family of retired President Uhuru Kenyatta said it was ready to pay KSh 350 million tax waiver it benefited from during the NIC and CBA banks merger in 2019 which birthed NCBA bank.
Ex-President Uhuru Kenyatta’s linked NCBA through its Group Managing Director John Gachora said the bank will obey the court ruling demanding it to pay all the accrued tax.
“What I assure Kenyans is that should the court find that NCBA was not entitled to the waiver… the day the court makes that determination, the following day we will send a cheque of KSh 350 million. That I can assure you,” Gachora said.
As such, President William Ruto has lauded the predecessor’s move to agree to pay taxes.
The president who was speaking during a Sunday service at the Deliverance Church International, Ruai, Nairobi said he was happy everyone has accepted to pay taxes.
The Head of State said by everyone paying taxes, the move will go a long way in reducing the country’s ballooning debt.
“I am happy that as a country we have all agreed and built a consensus that irrespective of status, there’ll be no waiving of taxes for anyone,
“It is the best consensus we can have as a nation, and it is what will get us out of debt,” the president said.
Earlier, Rtd. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s mother Mama Ngina Kenyatta had dismissed claims that the former first family had been exempted from paying taxes.
“I wonder when I hear some people say that others are not paying taxes. I wonder because people wake up and just say things disregarding the fact that the government has a way of running such matters,
“Paying taxes is a must for everyone regardless of their status in society. It’s not a matter to be talked about in the media or in political gatherings,” she said.