Kenya Revenue Authority suspends four workers in tax scandal

Four Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) employees have been suspended for clearing cargo aboard a ship that was still on the high seas.

Some of the nine containers that were irregularly cleared have been impounded in a major tax evasion syndicate that cost Kenya billions in unpaid charges. The revenue agency is now hunting for two containers that have already left the port.

KRA Customs and Border Control Commissioner Julius Musyoki disclosed that seven of the nine containers had already been intercepted for further verification at the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) yard in Mombasa.

"It is no longer business as usual at all our ports of entry. Any KRA officials suspected of abetting tax evasion will continue to face the full wrath of the law alongside their accomplices who include unscrupulous traders importing their cargo through the Port of Mombasa," Musyoki said.

It may also emerge that KPA employees are complicit in the tax evasion syndicate considering that any imported cargo must also get clearance from the agency.

Typically, any container leaving the port must get clearance from KRA's Simba System and the equivalent platform at the ports authority.

Insiders said a Somali-owned firm is the importer who compromised officials from the two agencies.

KRA on Tuesday seized seven containers that were being removed from Kilindini Port illegally. The insider added the containers had been released in the system before the vessel conveying them had docked at the port.

The suspended officials were all based in Mombasa and attached to the Customs and Border Control department.

All the intercepted containers, Musyoki said, had been risk-profiled through the Simba System based on a doubtful description and value of goods in the suspect containers. "By releasing the undeclared containers without a physical verification, the four officers are in breach of the KRA code of conduct and have been suspended pending further investigations," he said.

KRA's standard operating procedure specifies that all imported cargo be discharged and stacked by KPA at the port or at an authorised inland container depot pending verification and release by customs officers, Kenya Bureau of Standards and the ports authority.

The workers' role in the tax evasion relates to clearing of the cargo before verification of contents to ascertain the correct value for tax assessment.