KRA officials in court for abetting tax evasion

Four Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officers have been arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, for allegedly perpetrating tax evasion related crimes.

The officers, who have also been suspended from the Authority, were formerly attached to the KRA Customs and Border Control Division in Mombasa.

KRA staffers Lilian Akoth Onyango, John Wesonga, Anthony Ochieng and David Mwongela  appeared before Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo to face charges of making false customs transit bonds.

The four denied the charges and were released on a Ksh 1M bond of or cash bail of 200,000 each.

The four are currently on suspension for allegedly abetting tax evasion vices at the Portside and Autoport Container Freight Stations in Mombasa.

This comes just a day after National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich admitted that a lot of revenue is lost to leakages during revenue collection by the KRA and thus costing the economy billions.

The CS, however, assured Kenyans that this is being addressed through ongoing reforms at KRA.

Rotich indicated that the government is re-organizing the revenue collector’s administration to get rid of corrupt officials among other measures meant to raise revenue collection.

In recent weeks, KRA has also managed to plug potential revenue leakages in the lucrative import cargo sector with a raft of new customs procedures.

The new procedures cover the running of existing Container Freight Stations (CFS) under a more stringent and tightly controlled regime.

To provide the necessary legal muscle to underpin the new regulations, KRA gazetted the new regulations and procedures governing the operation of transit sheds late last year in line with the provisions of the East African Community Customs Management Act, 2004, and East African Customs Management Regulations.