The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Director General has come under heavy criticism for the agency’s failure to curb tax evasion while aggressively targeting small businesses.
As the head of KRA, he is responsible for ensuring tax compliance, yet under his leadership, major tax evasion cases have either been delayed or dismissed, raising serious concerns about his effectiveness and impartiality.
According to reports by Nation Africa, one example is the Athi Water Works Development Agency case, where Sh567.7 million in withholding tax was never deducted.
KRA flagged the issue in 2022, but the case dragged on until 2025, when it was eventually thrown out. Critics argue that this delay was not a matter of incompetence but a deliberate move to protect those involved.
In the past year alone, ten state institutions lost tax cases amounting to Sh6.5 billion, yet KRA has not aggressively pursued the collection of these funds.
In 2018, KRA admitted that Sh8 billion had gone uncollected from government bodies, and more recently, President Ruto highlighted that tax disputes between government agencies had cost the country Sh22 billion.
These revelations raise questions about why KRA has not prioritized recovering these billions.
Additionally, reports indicate that some KRA officials have been involved in fraudulent activities, including the forgery of excise stamps. A notable case involves a Thika-based distillery that allegedly evaded Sh41.5 billion in taxes over four years by tampering with production figures.
Such large-scale fraud, critics argue, would be difficult to execute without complicity from senior figures within KRA.
As the head of the agency, the Director General bears responsibility for these failures. Many believe that while KRA aggressively cracks down on small traders, influential individuals and entities manage to escape. If accountability is to be upheld, there is a need for thorough investigations into the agency’s handling of major tax evasion cases.
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