Kuku Foods Uganda, the parent company of KFC restaurants in Uganda, has raised concern over what it describes as a high-handed and intrusive tax raid carried out by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
In a protest letter dated November 20, 2025, and addressed to the URA Commissioner General, John Musinguzi, KFC says the operation violated legal procedures and departed from established administrative practice.
According to the company, URA officers, accompanied by armed personnel, entered its Kampala offices on November 19 and remained there from morning until almost midnight.
The officers “forcefully extracted [ed] electronic information from company devices without prior notice and under armed supervision,” the company noted.
It says that while the law gives the tax authority power to enter a taxpayer’s premises, those powers are meant to be exercised through a clear sequence of steps that usually begins with a written request for information.
The company said it had received no such request, nor had it failed to comply with any statutory obligation.
Kuku Foods and URA have been locked in a tax impasse over the last couple of years.
In its filings to URA, the company reported significant operating losses over four years from March 2018 to February 2022. These losses totaled around Shs 8.3 billion initially. Kuku Foods later revised these figures upward to about Shs 16.8 billion, claiming higher expenses and lower income than first reported.
This revision, they say, was part of their effort to reflect accurate financials after reviewing their books.
But URA did not buy this. In its assessment after the filings, it rejected certain expenses the company had claimed, saying they were not valid deductions. As a result, the URA slashed the accepted losses from a claimed Shs 21.3 billion down to Shs 8.3 billion.
Additionally, the URA issued assessments for Value Added Tax (VAT) and withholding tax totaling Shs 3.4 billion, meaning the company owed extra taxes.
How a Shs 4.2 billion tax bill nearly put KFC Uganda out of business
The Tax Appeals Tribunal in March this year urged the parties to reach an amicable understanding.
This seems not to have been the case. Kuku Foods said during the raid, URA officers reportedly “accessed devices and extracted information without explaining how the data would be stored, secured, or used.”
This episode comes amid growing unease within Uganda’s private sector about the consistency and predictability of tax administration. Over the past year, businesses across various industries have reported repeat audits, reversals of administrative positions without explanation, and aggressive enforcement actions that disrupt operations.
In its letter, Kuku Foods asks URA to explain the legal basis for reopening previously audited years and requests that any inquiry be limited to the period beginning March 2022. The company also seeks written assurances that future engagements will follow legally prescribed procedures. It notes that it may consider legal action if the issues go unresolved.
