Keroche breweries has laid off close to 400 employees after Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) shut down the company over tax arrears.
This comes amid a tax dispute with KRA after the company failed to honour a default settlement agreement.
Earlier this year, the company and KRA had signed a payment plan that would have seen the company settle billions of unpaid taxes effective January 2022.
The company boss, Tabitha Karanja has said the taxman was demanding Sh322 million from the company.
More time
Pleading with the taxman, Ms Karanja asked KRA to give them more time to restructure the payment plan claiming that the current one was unsustainable.
This is the second time the company is being shut down by KRA after the first one in February 2022 over the same tax dispute.
Keroche has been in a 16 year long dispute emanating from the company’s classification of it’s products.
KRA had claimed that in December 2021, the company owed Sh7.54 billion in unpaid taxes.
The company has however closed down despite calls by leaders to allow the company structure a plan on paying its debts.
Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga is one of the politicians who have voiced their concerns over the shutdown of the company.
“Don’t kill Keroche,” Raila said.