wrongturn
Elder Lister
“At one time KRA issued an agency notice to a cigarette manufacturing company asking them to pay money they owed us. Next thing I received a phone call from Raila Odinga, who at that time was Prime Minister in the coalition government formed after the 2007 General Election.
“Commissioner General, please tell Mr XXX (name redacted for legal reasons) to lift the agency notice against my friend,” Mr Waweru quotes Raila as asking him.
“Prime Minister, you don’t have the power to do that,” he replied.
“I am the coordinator of government; how come I don’t have the power?”, Raila poses, to which Mr Waweru responds: “Even my minister does not tell me to collect taxes from one person and not another.”
At another time a matter arose about suspicious cargo coming in through Eldoret International Airport. He writes that the owners had refused to abide by the rules requiring consolidated cargo to bear names of individual importers, their addresses and PIN numbers. They instead went to Uhuru Kenyatta, then Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, for protection.
“Uhuru called me and said, “Can you come to my office? I want us to sort out this matter about Eldoret Airport.”
“DPM, I am sorry I will not come,” I responded.
“Why?”
“Because if I come, from now on all tax matters will be resolved in your office and it is not healthy for you.”
After that Mr Kenyatta promised to call but didn’t. Shortly after, however, Mr William Ruto, then MP for Eldoret North, came in with the traders in question. Again, they were rebuffed in similar fashion, according to the book, which records Waweru’s rebellious streak.
Mr Waweru says KRA officials informed Mr Ruto of the seizure of the prohibited goods coming through Eldoret Airport, which included chemicals for making illegal addictive drugs, at which point
“Ruto became restless and looked uncomfortable”.
“He glanced at his watch several times and then abruptly stood up and said: ‘I was going for another meeting. Please proceed without me.’”
His dogged determination against political interference seemed to be working for him. For instance, customs revenue alone rose from Sh96 billion in 2003/2004 to Sh179 billion in 2008/2009, which was made even more remarkable by the fact that Value Added Tax (VAT) had been cut from 18 to 16 percent.
“KRA had collected Sh201 billion in the year ending June 2003. The following year we collected Sh229 billion,” he says in Kenya’s Tax Czar, An Autobiography of M G Waweru, published by Kenway Publications, an imprint of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP).
In the year ending June 2012, the time Mr Waweru retired, KRA had collected Sh704 billion. “I think my achievement in KRA was that I had enabled the government to finance 95 per cent of its budget from internally generated funds,” he says.
At one time, at a business roundtable meeting between the government and traders, the Prime Minister said that KRA was not Grand Coalition compliant. He cited, as an example, a case involving Catholic nuns he had met in Minnesota who complained bitterly about KRA customs officers who refused to release, duty-free, secondhand clothes they had donated to the poor.
“After leaving the meeting I tried to follow up the matter with the PM’s office to get the details of the container, but no information was forthcoming. Even much later, I had no idea what the PM meant when he said KRA was not “Grand Coalition compliant.”
TOMORROW:How Ruto turned the tables on Uhuru, and the day Raila broke a security cordon to see an ailing Kibaki. Kenya’s Tax Czar, an autobiography of Michael G Waweru, is published by Kenway Publications, an imprint of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP). It will be launched in Nairobi next week and will be available in all major bookshops thereafter.
nation.africa
“Commissioner General, please tell Mr XXX (name redacted for legal reasons) to lift the agency notice against my friend,” Mr Waweru quotes Raila as asking him.
“Prime Minister, you don’t have the power to do that,” he replied.
“I am the coordinator of government; how come I don’t have the power?”, Raila poses, to which Mr Waweru responds: “Even my minister does not tell me to collect taxes from one person and not another.”
At another time a matter arose about suspicious cargo coming in through Eldoret International Airport. He writes that the owners had refused to abide by the rules requiring consolidated cargo to bear names of individual importers, their addresses and PIN numbers. They instead went to Uhuru Kenyatta, then Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, for protection.
“Uhuru called me and said, “Can you come to my office? I want us to sort out this matter about Eldoret Airport.”
“DPM, I am sorry I will not come,” I responded.
“Why?”
“Because if I come, from now on all tax matters will be resolved in your office and it is not healthy for you.”
After that Mr Kenyatta promised to call but didn’t. Shortly after, however, Mr William Ruto, then MP for Eldoret North, came in with the traders in question. Again, they were rebuffed in similar fashion, according to the book, which records Waweru’s rebellious streak.
Mr Waweru says KRA officials informed Mr Ruto of the seizure of the prohibited goods coming through Eldoret Airport, which included chemicals for making illegal addictive drugs, at which point
“Ruto became restless and looked uncomfortable”.
“He glanced at his watch several times and then abruptly stood up and said: ‘I was going for another meeting. Please proceed without me.’”
His dogged determination against political interference seemed to be working for him. For instance, customs revenue alone rose from Sh96 billion in 2003/2004 to Sh179 billion in 2008/2009, which was made even more remarkable by the fact that Value Added Tax (VAT) had been cut from 18 to 16 percent.
“KRA had collected Sh201 billion in the year ending June 2003. The following year we collected Sh229 billion,” he says in Kenya’s Tax Czar, An Autobiography of M G Waweru, published by Kenway Publications, an imprint of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP).
In the year ending June 2012, the time Mr Waweru retired, KRA had collected Sh704 billion. “I think my achievement in KRA was that I had enabled the government to finance 95 per cent of its budget from internally generated funds,” he says.
At one time, at a business roundtable meeting between the government and traders, the Prime Minister said that KRA was not Grand Coalition compliant. He cited, as an example, a case involving Catholic nuns he had met in Minnesota who complained bitterly about KRA customs officers who refused to release, duty-free, secondhand clothes they had donated to the poor.
“After leaving the meeting I tried to follow up the matter with the PM’s office to get the details of the container, but no information was forthcoming. Even much later, I had no idea what the PM meant when he said KRA was not “Grand Coalition compliant.”
TOMORROW:How Ruto turned the tables on Uhuru, and the day Raila broke a security cordon to see an ailing Kibaki. Kenya’s Tax Czar, an autobiography of Michael G Waweru, is published by Kenway Publications, an imprint of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP). It will be launched in Nairobi next week and will be available in all major bookshops thereafter.
Former taxman targets Uhuru, Raila, Ruto in meddling claim
In yet-to-be-released memoirs, former KRA boss reveals attempts by leading politicians to influence tax decisions during the Kibaki era.
nation.africa
