Columnists

KRA raid on AfriCOG offices primitive

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Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) executive director Gladwell Otieno. Photo | Jeff Angote | Nairobi

There are fundamental policy issues that the Wednesday raid by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on the offices of the African Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) in Lavington raises.

First, the autonomy and independence of the tax authority? In terms of institutional strength and operational autonomy, the KRA has progressed very well since it was established in July 1995.

We all remember that before its creation, all the functions that the tax authority performs were under the National Treasury.

The KRA was created by bringing all tax collection activities under an autonomous corporate body run by professionals, with its own budget, strategic plans and governed by a board of directors.

Indeed, a country like ours that is serious about reforms must seek to have a tax authority, which will not over-assess obligations of a taxpayer based on political reasons.

Yet what Wednesday’s raid on AfriCOG shows is that we are at a stage where the KRA is now taking orders and directions from the NGOs Co-ordination Board on when to conduct raids on taxpayers.

We witnessed the strange and rare spectacle where a team of KRA officials that had been sent to raid AfriCOG quickly demobilised after acting Interior minister Fred Matiangi announced postponement of the purge on AfriCOG and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, which had been ordered by the NGOs Co-ordination Board.

Which begs the questions: since when did KRA officers on a mission to raid the premises of a taxpayer start taking instructions from ministers and demobilising on account of their public statements?

What must we do as a country to introduce checks on the ruling elite’s ability to use the tax authority for political ends?

We are headed for an era where we will - more than ever before - need a tax administration that enforces the law without political favouritism - without the kind arbitrariness we witnessed during the raid on AfriCOG.

When you have a situation where the tax authority is routinely unleashed by the ruling elite to undermine political opponents or to discipline troublesome constituencies, you are headed for deep trouble.

The issue of politics aside, you must still deal with the barbaric manner in which the raid on AfriCOG offices was conducted. KRA sent more than a dozen officers in two minibuses.

And, according to the court order the raiders carried, the intention was to empty the AfriCOG offices by carting away equipment and computers.

We forget that descent to a police state is deceptively easy. When a tax authority conducts a raid in this manner, it destroys taxpayer morale which - although intangible - is a very valuable national asset.

READ: Taxman, police raid Africog offices

Don’t we all know that the most efficient tax systems are those that operate on the basis of voluntary compliance?

How do you boost voluntary compliance when you act with such arbitrariness - and when all that the taxpaying public see is a tax authority bent on over-assessing obligations of opponents of the ruling elites?

In the computer world, the expression ‘user-friendliness’ is used to describe computer systems that are built with the convenience of the taxpayer in mind.

It’s the reason why most tax authorities always strive to be ‘assessee-friendly’.

I am not suggesting that anyone who defrauds revenue should go free.

They should be unearthed and brought to justice.

However, the means adopted to this end must be lawful. No taxpayer is above the law, but as long as our constitution lasts, every taxpayer is above state terrorism.

We need a tax authority that not only observes constitutional restraints on its powers, but is also insulated from pressure of the ruling elite. The raid by KRA on AfriCOG’s offices was primitive.