KCB Deactivation From URA Angers Kenyans as Answers are Demanded

Kenya Commercial Bank’s suspension from the Uganda Revenue Authority portal has angered Kenyans who have taken to social media to express their anger.

In a Public Notice statement from Uganda Revenue Authority deactivated KCB from its portal citing resolution of key issues as the main reason.

“NOTICE is hereby given to the general taxpaying public that Uganda Revenue Authority has deactivated Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) from URA portal with effect from 21st of December 2016 pending resolution of key issues,” read the statement.

In online ‘mass protest,’ Kenyans took to the social media with a hashtag #KCBShame saying that the institution had ‘exported’ shame from Kenya to Uganda making Kenyans to be ridiculed in the land of ‘matoke’.

Led by Consumer Federation of Kenya, Kenyans demanded for an explanation from Kenya Commercial Bank terming its silence over the matter as disrespectful and an uncaring attitude towards their customers both in Kenya and in Uganda.

“For how long does Kenya Commercial Bank believe that it can ignore public inquiries on matters in public interest?” asked COFEK through their twitter handle.

Responding to the deactivation, through a piece published on The Standard, said that “KCB Bank Uganda Limited was identified as a garnishee in a court case involving Uganda Revenue Authority and third parties. The bank acted as garnishee in compliance with an order issued by the court in Kampala.”

According to Legal Dictionary, a garnishee is an individual who holds money or property that belongs to a debtor subject to an attachment proceeding by a creditor. For example, when an individual owes money but has for a source of income only a salary, a creditor might initiate a garnishment proceedings. If the creditor is successful, a certain portion of the debtor’s salary will be automatically sent to the creditor from each paycheck. In such a case, the debtor’s employer is the garnishee.

The banking sector in Kenya seemed to have plunged into some financial turmoil after the coming into effect the law capping the interest rates. Most financial institutions in Kenya has cut on their staff in an effort to cope with the prevailing business environment. The tier one banks which were seen as strong enough to wade through the storm have often turned out as casualties with some like the National Bank of Kenya struggling to remain afloat.

The suspension of the Kenya Commercial Bank from the Uganda Revenue Authority comes barely days after the US financial system threatened that it might blacklist some Kenyan banks operating in South Sudan for offences of money laundering.

According to John Prendergast, the Founding Director of Enough Projects, and speaking to a national television station NTV, “the fact that Kenyan banks have been infected by people in South Sudan who are stealing the extraordinary oil wealth of the country and offshoring it using the banking system… buying houses here in Kenya but particularly putting their money through Kenyan banks by definition, that is a crime, that is money laundering.”

On Thursday, the National Bank of Kenya which has reduced its profits by more than 70 percent lost another 200,000 shillings after a client who was blacklisted by the lender at the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) went to court and awardee the amount.