Flamboyant KRA commissioner put on the spot – Weekly Citizen

There is an outcry from importers, clearing agents and the general public to the Commissioner-General Kenya Revenue Authority John Mburu to rein in some of his officers at the ICD specifically one Patrick Omondi who is said to have gone rogue on importers who do not toe his line.

The officer who is the acting head of imports, but formerly an HVO who is based at the Embakasi ICD has become a pain in the neck for importers and traders who have fallen victim to delay tactics he keeps on employing so as to coerce them to part with huge amounts in cash as bribes to have their goods released from the ICD.

According to the presidential directive to KRA, clearance of goods imported into the country should be fasttracked to enable revenue generation by the authority to be realised as targeted, but instead this officer has decided to go against the presidential directive, importers claim.

The officer who belongs to the few remaining elements at the authority who are resistant to change, claiming to be connected to powerful commissioners at Times Towers has remained adamant and still demands for bribes before eventually releasing goods even after the importers have followed the right channels of paying their taxes as required by the authority.

According to clearing agents, there are other clients who are directly under his protection and whose cargo gets cleared in a flash, while those who do not enjoy his protection are taken all over KRA offices in a tiring circle that eventually calls for corrupting the officer in the end or else one is subjected to paying abnormal duty.

Omondi is said to have overstayed at the ICD since the time he edged out Lucy Ng’ang’a who was the incharge at the ICD but who was unceremoniously moved to the JKIA. Many importers are longing for her days at the ICD.

Due to the continued harassments meted on the helpless importers, there is a lot of overstayed cargo contributing to congestion at the ICD, while many importers have opted out and are now clearing their goods from the port of Mombasa for fear of this head of imports who has turned the office he holds into a cash minting machine with no regards to protecting the interests of the client.

This officer who keeps on boasting to fellow officers about how smart he is for having three night clubs including one in Donholm, which is frequented by fellow officers who marvel at what an ICD station can do for an officer, while he also boasts of being the only club that stocks the Sh1.5 million whiskey, is also rumoured to be moving around with a lady manager at the ICD, while he has engineered for transfers of other lady officers who turn him down.

The angered traders who have fallen victim to the rogue officer are now threatening to name the companies that are under his protection so that a background check and proper audit could be carried out to ascertain if the said companies have been paying their duty as required over all imports for the last few years.