The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has come out, guns blazing, telling off those criticizing them for the current financial woes that are facing the government. The tax collector says he has nothing to do with the financial problems and shouldn’t be blamed.
The sentiments from KRA come a few days after MP Opiyo Wandayi wrote a letter to the government demanding that officials at KRA be investigated over the drastic drop in revenues collected by the government despite the many taxes put in place.
For the first time in history, the government has failed to pay civil servants on time, including members of parliament and senators. By the time people were breaking for Easter, only the police, military and teachers had received their salaries for the month of March.
But KRA says people should find someone else to blame and not them. “KRA has kept pace with revenue collection compared to prior year collections. As at the close of March 2023, revenue collection averaged 95.1% on original target and 93.4% on supplementary target representing a collection of 1.554 billion shillings and a year on year 8 percent growth.”
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Here is the letter from KRA saying they are not to blame:
Government officials including the Deputy President of Kenya, Rigathi Gachagua, have admitted that the government does not have money and is struggling to pay salaries. Some politicians including Rigathi himself have blamed the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta for looting the coffers.
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County Governments have not received any cash from the National Treasury for the past four months. Currently, there are no tangible developments going on in the counties because there is no money. County workers have not received their salaries for at least 3 months now.