A technology company has moved to court seeking compensation from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, claiming that the government’s newly launched Advance Cargo Declaration (ACD) system was developed using its original idea without payment or approval.
In court documents, the company argues that it first presented the cargo tracking concept to KRA officials in 2023 during a meeting held at Times Tower.
According to the petitioners, the presentation covered every major part of the proposed system, including its architecture, operational modules and risk assessment tools that were designed to improve cargo monitoring and boost revenue collection.
The company’s directors say senior KRA officials welcomed the proposal and appeared impressed by the technology during the meeting. They claim the discussions gave them confidence that the government was interested in adopting the system and that they expected to secure a major contract after the presentation.
However, the company says communication with KRA stopped shortly after the presentations despite the positive feedback it had received. It claims no licensing agreement was signed and no payment was made for the technology or the ideas that had been shared with the authority.
The dispute intensified after KRA officially rolled out the Advance Cargo Declaration system on August 3, 2026. The company alleges that the government’s platform contains several features that closely resemble the proposal it submitted three years earlier.
According to the petition, the similarities include the use of pre-shipment declarations, reference codes and risk assessment models. The company argues that these features are too similar to be dismissed as a coincidence and believes its intellectual property was used without its permission.
The firm further states that its digital cargo declaration system has the potential to recover up to Ksh826 billion lost every year through improved cargo monitoring and compliance. It also estimates that the technology could generate savings of more than Ksh23 billion in technology-related costs if fully implemented.
The petitioners say they also attempted to resolve the matter outside the courts. They claim they reached out to Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi seeking intervention after communication with KRA broke down, but the efforts did not produce any solution.
As a result, the company is now asking the court to step in and determine whether its rights were violated. It has proposed two possible remedies for the dispute.The first request asks the court to order KRA to immediately stop using the Advance Cargo Declaration system until the matter is fully resolved.
According to the company, this would prevent continued use of a system it believes was developed using its ideas without compensation.
The second option would allow KRA to continue operating the system, but only if the authority agrees to pay the company a 30 percent royalty on all the value, savings and efficiencies generated by the platform.
The case is expected to draw attention because it raises questions about the protection of intellectual property when private companies present innovative ideas to government institutions.
