Uhuru returns to KRA depot, orders piled containers to be cleared in days – Nairobi News

President Uhuru Kenyatta returned to the Embakasi Inland Container Depot (ICD) on Monday afternoon following complaints of inefficiencies.

The President ordered all containers piled up at the depot to be released in three weeks.

In future, containers must be cleared within four days, he ordered.

The President said unscrupulous businesspersons were responsible for the delay in clearing goods at the facility.

“Part of the problem is due to businessmen doing consolidation. They bring their cargo here and pretend that they are meant for other markets such as Uganda, South Sudan to avoid taxes,” said President Kenyatta.

He also ordered for the vetting of consolidators at the ICD in Nairobi to weed out tax cheats.

“If we don’t pay taxes, how will we run the government?” he posed.

The president had in the morning made an impromptu visit to the depot. The visit was prompted by complaints by traders whose goods have been confiscated.

The visit by President Kenyatta follows arrest of 41 suspects interdicted by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for being part of a tax evasion racket.

They were part of 75 employees who were said to have been aiding and abetting evasion of taxes by facilitating irregular clearance of cargo and executing fraudulent amendments of tax returns.