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Revenue official nabbed in 35k bribe saga

By Nyaboga Kiage October 16th, 2022 2 min read

A Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) official at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will tomorrow, Monday, October 17, 2022, be arraigned in court for allegedly demanding for a bribe with the aim of aiding a tax evasion.

The official whose identity is yet to be released by both the police and Ethics and Anti Corruption (EACC) was nabbed on the night of Friday, October 14, 2022, and interrogated at the Integrity Center Police Station.

The EACC, in a statement to newsrooms on Saturday, said the official had demanded a Sh35,000 bribe from a consignee who had gone to JKIA to collect a laptop sent to him from the United States by a relative.

“The person who went to collect the laptop was required to pay a tax of Sh100,974 but the KRA customs official undervalued the consignment so that he would only pay Sh12,000,” the statement by EACC read in part.

It is then that she went ahead and asked for the bribe telling the person that she needed the sh35,000 for assisting in reducing the tax amount.

After she was grilled at the Integrity police station, the suspect was then taken to Kilimani Police Station where she spent her night.

However, on Saturday, October 15, 2022, she was released after she paid a cash bail as officials from EACC go on investigating the matter.

This comes barely a week after KRA officials at the airport arrested six women who are accused of smuggling over Sh103 million.

In the incident that happened on October 6, 2022, the six women of Somali descent were reportedly travelling from India with the money stashed in their luggage in the form of US dollars.

Customs officers from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) detected the presence of the money after scanning their luggage. The cash, according to the statement from the authority, was hidden in shoes and clothes.