The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has seized seven containers suspected of tax evasion that were being removed from Kilindini Port.
The containers had been released before the vessel carrying them docked at the port. Following the incident, KRA suspended four Mombasa based customs officers.
The four officers, attached to the Customs and Border Control Department , have been implicated in a scheme that released nine imported cargo containers before verification of contents and on a lower customs tax assessment.
The suspension is part of a KRA transformation effort, aimed at sealing revenue leakage through a sustained zero tolerance to corruption campaign.
According to KRA Customs and Border Control Commissioner Julius Musyoki, seven of the nine containers, had already been intercepted for further verification at the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Yard in Mombasa.
The remaining two containers which had already left the port are being traced.
“It is no longer business as usual at all our ports of entry. Any KRA officials suspected of abetting tax evasion will continue to face the full wrath of the law alongside their accomplices who include unscrupulous traders importing their cargo through the port of Mombasa,” Musyoki said.