Tourism Fund taps debt collectors to recover levy arrears

Kenya’s Tourism Fund has hired a private debt recovery agency to help collect more than 1 billion shillings in overdue tourism levy payments from hotels, restaurants, and other regulated establishments.

What the Tourism Fund is doing

• The Fund is using third‑party debt collectors specifically to chase historical levy arrears that have built up over several years, including during the Covid‑19 downturn.

• Its board chair, Samson Some, says the aim is to separate “legacy” debts from current collections so that ongoing compliance remains high while old cases are worked through under a distinct policy approach.​

Size of the arrears and who owes

• The outstanding debt is reported to be “in excess of” 1 billion Kenyan shillings, though the Fund has not disclosed an exact figure.

• Arrears involve private tourism businesses, some defunct firms, and even government institutions that both receive Tourism Fund money and simultaneously owe unpaid levies, which complicates recoveries.​

How the tourism levy works

• Regulated hotels, restaurants, and other licensed tourism establishments must charge a 2 percent tourism levy on their gross sales (accommodation, food, drinks, and related services) and remit it to the Tourism Fund by around the 9th–10th day of the following month.

• The levy is legally treated as money collected on behalf of the State rather than a normal business liability, which means non‑remittance can attract penalties and potential legal action.

Compliance and penalties

• Official data in the Fund’s current strategic plan show that as of June 2023 about 69 percent of roughly 13,069 liable establishments were compliant, leaving around 31 percent in default at that time.​

• Late payment attracts an immediate fixed fine (5,000 shillings) plus an additional 3 percent penalty per month on the unpaid amount, and persistent non‑payment can be pursued as a civil debt or even treated as a criminal offence under Kenyan tourism law.

Why this matters for the sector

• Tourism levy collections finance tourism marketing, infrastructure, and development projects, and they have grown from around 3.8–3.9 billion shillings in 2022/23 to about 4.9 billion in 2023/24 and 5.1 billion in 2024/25 as enforcement has tightened.

• The Fund says only about 1 percent of establishments are now defaulting on current remittances, so the new use of debt collectors is meant to clean up historical arrears while preserving near‑full compliance going forward.​