The death of businessman Hannington Juma inside Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) Lake Basin Mall in Kisumu recently dramatises the all-too-familiar daily script of agony by taxpayers in the hands of the taxman.
This sad account mirrors a tale of ancient Rome, where the emperor sent his General to pacify rioters in a small city over taxes. Instead, he wiped out everybody with the gun and reported restoring peace. A scribe then remarked: they created desolation and called it peace.
