Nairobi, June 29 -- A section of taxpayers on Monday struggled to log into the Kenya Revenue Authority's (KRA) online tax filing platform, iTax, as thousands rushed to submit their mandatory annual income tax returns ahead of the June 30 deadline to avoid penalties.

Some taxpayers were greeted by broken links and error messages when attempting to access the portal, leaving many frustrated and fearing they would miss the statutory deadline.

Under Kenyan law, taxpayers who fail to file their annual returns by June 30 risk late-filing penalties and, in some cases, default tax assessments by KRA.

The congestion is not new. Since iTax was rolled out in 2013, the platform has routinely experienced heavy traffic in the final days of the filin...