The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) enforcement officials will soon start wearing body cameras while working.
This is according to the KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu who said the move was aimed at curbing tax cheating and bribery.
Githii said that on Tuesday during an interview at a local media house where he also said that shutting down the cameras would require a proper explanation.
"Very soon we will also be ensuring our enforcement officers have body-worn cameras, like the ones you see in the US, so that any action they take is recorded and we can see it. When you put it off, we will also have to understand why you do it," Mburu said.
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This move comes amid KRA’s efforts to clip the wings of its errant staff who have been involved in fraudulent clearance of cargo and alteration of tax returns in a bid to help tax cheats.
Mburu added KRA has to employ risk management wherever their risks are highest.
"This is so that as you engage out there, you do not get involved in activities that will compromise our objectives. We have to employ risk management where our risks are highest, so they will be more for our officers at border points where things are moving in and out and all our custom areas," Mburu said.
According to Mburu, the use of the body cams will first be rolled out at large ticket areas such as border points, ports and airports.
These are areas where cheating in the declaration of returns, theft, corruption and bribery incidents have been witnessed.
The taxman also revealed he is seeking to improve surveillance on factories producing excisable products such as alcoholic drinks by getting access to real-time CCTV feeds from factory floors.
This move will help the KRA to monitor the movement of products in and out of the factories.
In order to curb excise tax evasion, which is estimated at Sh12 billion annually, KRA is also planning to install sensors in storage tanks to monitor the usage of raw materials which will inform the volume of finished products.
