By The Weekly Vision Business Desk
The Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) attempt to recover more than Sh1 billion from betting firm Milestone Games, the operator of the SportPesa brand in Kenya, has suffered a setback after the Tax Appeals Tribunal ruled that the tax authority acted prematurely by seeking to freeze the company’s accounts while the underlying tax dispute remains before the tribunal.
On 30 April 2026, KRA issued agency notices to five financial institutions, including Absa Bank Kenya, KCB Bank Kenya and Ecobank Kenya, as well as telecommunications operators Safaricom and Airtel Kenya, directing them to freeze Milestone Games’ accounts and remit approximately Sh1 billion to the tax authority.
An agency notice allows KRA to require third parties holding a taxpayer’s funds, such as banks or telecommunications companies, to withhold those funds and pay them directly to the authority in settlement of an outstanding tax liability.
The dispute centres on tax assessments issued against Milestone Games, which now operates the SportPesa brand following the exit of its former operator, Pevans East Africa. The latest case revives a long-running history of tax disputes involving the SportPesa brand.
Milestone Games alleged that the agency notices were deliberately issued at around 4 p.m. on a Friday to deny the company an opportunity to seek urgent court intervention before the accounts were frozen. The company further claimed that KRA acted in bad faith and alleged that some notices were sent to institutions where it does not hold accounts.
KRA has not publicly responded to those specific allegations, which remain allegations and have not been determined by the tribunal.
The dispute arises from tax assessments that Milestone Games challenged before the Tax Appeals Tribunal in February 2026. According to tribunal filings, KRA is seeking Sh1,011,230,716 in excise duty on customer bets, calculated at 12.5 per cent of amounts staked, together with Sh462,991 in withholding tax on betting winnings for the period between June 2023 and February 2024.
Milestone Games maintains that it lodged a formal objection after receiving the tax assessment on 29 September 2025, but argues that KRA failed to determine the objection within the 60-day statutory period prescribed by law. The company says it subsequently filed its appeal before the tribunal while awaiting a determination of its objection.
In its ruling, the Tax Appeals Tribunal ordered KRA to withdraw the agency notices unconditionally, holding that once a taxpayer has filed an appeal against a disputed tax assessment, the authority cannot use agency notices to enforce collection of the disputed amount until the appeal has been determined.
KRA opposed the application, arguing that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to issue injunctive relief and noting that Milestone Games had already obtained similar interim protection from the High Court. The tribunal rejected those arguments and directed that the agency notices issued to the banks and telecommunications companies be lifted immediately.
The latest ruling is another chapter in the long-running legal battles between KRA and operators of the SportPesa brand. Between 2018 and 2022, Pevans East Africa challenged several agency notices issued by KRA over betting-related taxes. While some court decisions favoured the company, a related High Court ruling in 2022 upheld KRA’s authority to issue agency notices under certain circumstances.
The dispute also recalls earlier investigations into SportPesa’s tax affairs. Finance Uncovered previously reported that a preliminary KRA audit had estimated Pevans East Africa’s potential tax liability for the period between 2015 and 2019 at approximately Sh95 billion. The company disputed the figure, arguing that it was only a preliminary estimate rather than a formal tax assessment, while Finance Uncovered reported that the estimate may have overstated the potential liability.
The latest case comes as KRA intensifies revenue collection from Kenya’s betting sector. Tax collections from betting firms increased by 24 per cent over the past year, rising from Sh15.93 billion to Sh19.33 billion, reflecting the authority’s increased focus on the industry.
For Milestone Games and other betting operators, the tribunal’s decision reinforces the principle that disputed tax assessments should first be determined through the statutory appeals process before enforcement measures such as agency notices can be used.
