Tension at KRA as 90 officers grilled over tax evasion

Tension at KRA as 90 officers grilled over tax evasion

Panic has gripped staff members at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), with yet another wave of arrests and prosecution looming.

In the last two weeks, detectives from the anti-fraud unit have grilled at least 90 KRA officers, over alleged collusion to deny the country billions of shillings in revenue through tax evasion.

The intricate web of tax evasion, according to a source at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, involved some KRA workers and crafty business people.

Among those probed include 10  top level staff and senior managers, with the net cast wider to net past bosses at Times Tower.

KRA Commissioner General James Githii Mburu, who took over from John Njiraini, is the man leading the onslaught against tax evaders and their allies at KRA.

According to the source at DCI, the anti-fraud unit detectives were focusing on tax evasion from 2014 to 2019, where at least Ksh.250 billion that would have been collected as revenue was diverted through high profile collusion.

Njiraini was the commissioner general between 2013 and 2019, and handed over to mburu last month.

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji is on record confirming that the spotlight was on current and past KRA bosses.

“Once investigations are complete, you will see KRA officials in court, not just small level, but high level, including commissioners,” said Haji.

In just two weeks this month, proprietors of alcohol manufacturing plants were arrested and prosecuted over alleged tax evasion.

Humphrey Kariuki of Africa Spirits and Wines of the World faces charges of failing to pay Ksh.41 billion in taxes, while Keroche Breweries Directors Joseph Karanja and Tabitha Karanja are in court over alleged Ksh.14 billion tax evasion.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has also come out to back the investigative institutions in combating looters of public resources and tax evaders, insisting that his administration would not offer safety to suspected economic criminals

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