A technology company has moved to court seeking compensation from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi over claims that the government agency adopted its cargo tracking innovation without consent or payment.
The firm has filed a petition challenging KRA’s newly launched Advance Cargo Declaration (ACD) system, arguing that the platform is based on an idea it presented to the tax authority in 2023 but was never compensated for.
According to the petition, the company first introduced its cargo-tracking concept to KRA officials during a presentation held at Times Tower. The firm’s directors claim senior officials showed strong interest in the technology after being taken through detailed presentations covering the system’s modules, architectural design and risk assessment features.
The petitioners say they left the meeting believing they had secured a major government opportunity. However, they claim that no agreement followed and communication with KRA eventually stopped despite what they described as positive feedback from officials.
The company now alleges that KRA later developed and launched its own version of the system in 2026 without entering into a licensing agreement or compensating the original developers.
The firm argues that the similarities between its proposed solution and the ACD system are significant, citing features such as pre-shipment declarations, cargo reference codes and risk assessment models as examples of technology elements that were allegedly replicated.
The petitioners claim their digital cargo declaration platform could help the government recover up to Ksh826 billion in annual losses, while delivering savings estimated at more than Ksh23 billion in technology-related costs.
After failing to secure compensation from KRA, the company says it appealed to CS John Mbadi, but the matter was not resolved, leading to the court action.
The firm is seeking one of two remedies from the court. It wants KRA to either stop using the Advance Cargo Declaration system completely or, if the authority continues operating it, pay a 30 per cent royalty on the value, savings and efficiencies generated through the platform.
The case comes shortly after KRA rolled out the ACD system on August 3 as part of efforts to improve cargo monitoring, enhance revenue collection and strengthen controls within Kenya’s import processes.
At the time of publication, neither KRA nor the Treasury had issued a response to the allegations.