Kenya transporters to move to court over Mombasa County cess
Effigies of a giraffe and its baby at a roundabout in near Mombasa County Governor's office in this photo taken on April 9, 2021.
Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) will sue to stop Mombasa County from imposing taxes on roads built and managed by the national government.
KTA is concerned that Governor Hassan Joho’s administration is still imposing taxes in the form of cess on vehicles transporting goods into the county despite a Supreme Court ruling that banned the collection of taxes where services are not rendered.
KTA chairman Newton Wang’oo accused the county of disobeying court orders, noting that imposing cess as a condition of movement across boundaries had been declared unconstitutional.
“The county, in total and blatant disregard of the orders of the Supreme Court, continues to levy cess charges even when no services are rendered by the county on roads maintained and classified under the national government,” Mr Wang’oo said.
To make the situation worse, the county, in its 2021 Finance Bill, increased chargeable cess by more than 500 per cent in some cases.
Mr Wang’oo said trucks ferrying alcohol are charged Sh10,000, up from Sh2,000.
“We are going to court to stop this. There is nothing we can do but seek legal redress. We are still consulting with our lawyers,” he said.
KTA has also faulted Mr Joho for waiving cess charges on miraa transporters entering the county, saying the same should be done for transporters ferrying other commodities.
But Mr Wang’oo said that miraa transporters were not supposed to pay cess in the first place, in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“The practice that public statements by politicians on the campaign trail have more strength than a judgment of five judges of the Supreme Court is a blatant mockery of the Judiciary,” he said.
Transporters now want Mombasa County stopped from continuing with the illegality and what they described as the institutionalisation of impunity.
“We urge our national and county governments to respect court orders and the Judiciary to create and enhance confidence in the business community and Kenyans at large,” he said.
In a ruling in July this year, the Supreme Court said counties do not have the authority to impose charges for services that they do not offer.
The decision by judges Philomena Mwilu, Njoki Ndung’u, Smokin Wanjala, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Isaac Lenaola meant that transporters should not be charged any fees while using roads built and managed by the national government.
The judges termed as unconstitutional any charges imposed by counties on services that they do not render, adding that they should only collect what belongs to them.
“Whereas a county can levy charges, it must do so in exchange for an amenity. Put differently, a county does not have the authority to charge a cess, levy, or tax where they do not offer anything in return,” the judges said.
The ruling followed a petition by Base Titanium Ltd to have a Sh3,000 cess imposed on each of its trucks entering Mombasa County scrapped, arguing that it was unconstitutional.
In this case, the Supreme Court found that Mr Joho’s administration had been illegally collecting taxes from the company’s trucks each time the vehicles transported minerals to the Mombasa port.
Transporters are, however, yet to benefit from this ruling, because they are still paying cess for using roads managed by the national government. But they have vowed to go to court to obtain an order stopping the county from collecting what they view as illegal cess.
