An unfriendly new government and a board headed by an assertive chairman forced Githii Mburu to cut short his fresh five-year term amid a fresh shake-up of the Kenya Revenue Authority’s C-suite.
Mr Mburu on Thursday opted to resign less than eight months into his new term in changes that have seen the KRA board replace three of seven managers on the agency’s top executive team.
President William Ruto has never concealed his displeasure with KRA’s previous aggressive clampdown on the rich in an effort to recover unpaid taxes and raise national revenues.
During his campaigns for the August 9 election, Dr Ruto claimed that his close allies were targeted for political persecution or were being intimidated so that they could abandon him.
Sources close to Mr Mburu reckon he opted to throw in the towel rather than wait to be pushed out by a board that wanted operations of the KRA to take a different turn.
He was also uncomfortable with the style of work of the new chairman Anthony Nganga Mwaura, an ally of the President who had taken up operational roles at the KRA, earning him the tag ‘Executive Chairman’ in Kenya’s business circles.
Mr Mwaura’s mode of operation was different from that of his predecessor, Francis Muthaura, who preferred to remain behind the scenes.
The executives replaced are Lilian Nyawanda (Commissioner, of Customs and Border Control), Terra Saidimu (Commissioner, Intelligence & Strategic Operations) and David Kinuu (Commissioner, Corporate Support Services). David Mwangi, David Yego and Nancy Ngetich have taken up their respective roles in acting capacity.
The Commissioner of Domestic Taxes Rispah Simiyu has replaced Mr Mburu in an acting capacity.
“The regime and the board were unfriendly. With changes in government, he actually wanted to leave. It has actually taken longer than was expected,” said a source close to Mr Mburu who sought anonymity.
Mr Mwaura was appointed chairman in November in changes that also saw the appointment of five new directors on January 12, leaving only State representatives.
Mr Mwaura is a businessman whose past is controversial and doesn’t boast the public service credentials of his predecessors.
He came into the limelight in 2020 when his companies, Hardi Enterprises and Toddy Civil Engineering Company, were implicated in a City Hall scandal for allegedly receiving irregular payments amounting to Sh102 million.
Mr Mburu got a fresh five-year term in June after serving his initial three-year contract that started on July 1, 2019.
His tenure was marked by aggressive pursuit of prominent people the KRA believed to be tax cheats in what ushered in the boldest crackdown on high-net-worth persons.
The taxman hinged this aggressive pursuit of tax cheats on the Tax Procedures Act, which empowers the authority to seek taxes directly from third parties like banks, employers and suppliers.
The distress order allows the KRA to forcibly occupy a tax cheat’s house or business premises and failure to settle the demanded taxes can lead to an auction of the business premise or goods in the business.
This is the law the KRA used in 2019 to close the Thika-based Africa Spirits Limited (ASL) over a Sh17 billion tax evasion claim.
The factory belonging to billionaire Humphrey Kariuki was reopened in December, just days after Dr Ruto appointed the tycoon to head a powerful investment committee.
Dr Ruto ordered the KRA to desist from seizing the assets of suspected tax evaders and disabling businesses through forcible occupations and blockade of bank accounts.
“I have told the Commissioner-General (CG) that he must tell his people to stop and we have no choice because I do not want to fight with people but they must stop,” Dr Ruto said during the annual taxpayers’ day on October 28.
“I have given enough information to CG to sort out that mess and I have told him, if he doesn’t sort out the mess, I’ll sort it out myself.”
Corruption and tax suits against Dr Ruto’s allies worth close to Sh30 billion have either been withdrawn or quashed in the recent past, turning the spotlight on the prosecution and investigative agencies in the fight against graft.
The cases have fallen in quick succession, raising speculation about interference with the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Noordin Haji.
The DPP on January 10 withdrew Sh2.5 billion tax evasion charges against Mary Wangui Mungai, another ally of the President who has since been appointed as the chairperson of the Communications Authority of Kenya.
