US Reveals How Wealthy Kenyans Laundered over Sh800 Billion Illicit Cash Stashed Abroad

Kenyans with assets stashed abroad laundered over Sh800 billion during a tax amnesty offered by the government, the United States has said. 

In a report released on Wednesday, the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said the tax pardon facilitated money laundering as Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) lacked a policy to monitor the inflows.

The International Narcotics Control Strategy (Money Laundering) Report noted that the Kenyan tax authority failed to come up with a policy to confirm whether the money was actually repatriated.

The amnesty was declared by former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich in 2016 and extended twice to June 2019 in a bid to facilitate tax payments. It allowed Kenyans with money hidden in offshore accounts to repatriate it without disclosing the source.

“KRA has been unable to trace approximately $7.9 billion (Sh803 billion) … or to confirm that the registered funds were not transferred out of Kenya again, raising concerns the amnesty facilitated the laundering of illicit cash,” the report stated in part.

The amnesty issued for the 2018/19 fiscal year offered a blanket buffer that allowed people to return their money tax-free without having to explain the source.

Most of the money was repatriated from India, Mauritius, and Seychelles, and the absence of a framework to monitor the inflows means it may have been rewired back as clean cash, Daily Nation reported.