The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) workers will start wearing body cameras in an effort to curb tax cheating and crack down on staff bribery that abets duty evasion.
KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu said on Tuesday that the cameras, popularly known as bodycams, will be used primarily by employees in the domestic tax department and customs and border control, as part of the latest effort by authorities to combat corruption.
“Very soon we will also be ensuring our enforcement officers have body-worn cameras, like the ones you see in the US, so that any action they take is recorded and we can see it. When you put it off, we will also have to understand why you do it,” Mr. Mburu told the Business Daily in an interview.
“This is so that as you engage out there, you do not get involved in activities that will compromise our objectives. We have to employ risk management where our risks are highest, so they will be more for our officers at border points where things are moving in and out and all our custom areas.”
The use of cameras will begin at high-value locations such as border crossings, Mombasa port, the Inland Container Depot, and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The integrity of KRA employees has recently come into question as the government faces a severe cash crisis.
The authority has prosecuted tax-related offenses such as theft, falsifying tax returns, corruption, collusion, and soliciting bribes from tax cheats.
According to KRA, the country loses almost Sh12 billion in revenue to tax cheats and has been mitigating the loopholes to meet its targets.
The taxman’s target for the year ending June 2022 was increased by Sh25 billion to Sh1.8 trillion.
KRA was already predicting that it would surpass its initial target of Sh1.77 trillion by Sh140 billion.
“I believe we will be over the original target of Sh1.8 trillion by Sh140 billion. Right now we are above it by Sh126 billion, so we hope this month we can do another Sh15 billion, so it will be about Sh140 billion,” the commissioner general said in a recent interview.
