Efforts to obtain a comment from Andrew Osoro, a senior KRA Revenue Officer at JKIA, on 30th September regarding the alleged collusion between international courier company employees and KRA officials, resulting in large-scale tax evasion and loss of revenue to the Exchequer, were unsuccessful. He declined to respond directly, merely stating via WhatsApp: “I have never been an employee of UPS”
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By The Weekly Vision Investigations Team
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is once again under scrutiny after it emerged that unscrupulous importers are running a tax evasion racket that has cost the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) millions of shillings in customs duties.
According to an in-depth investigation conducted by The Weekly Vision, the illegal scheme involves several international courier service providers in collusion with KRA staff stationed at the airport. Together, they ensure the deliberate underpayment of taxes by misrepresenting imported items and undervaluing goods entering the country.
For instance, a United Parcel Service (UPS) shipment that arrived at JKIA on 28th July, Tracking No: 1ZXG99466741890344, consisted of several units of Digital Area Monitors, Model 375/2, valued at US$14,985 inclusive of other charges. This consignment was reportedly cleared without the payment of the requisite duties to KRA.
The Digital Area Monitors were imported by a Nairobi-based company (name withheld) from NATS Incorporated, 515 Centrepoint Drive, Suite 108, Middletown, CT 06457, USA. KRA regulations require that all imports, including courier and personal shipments handled by companies such as DHL and UPS, must be supported by an Import Declaration Form (IDF). However, in this case, no such form was applied to support the import.
Our investigations have uncovered several other cases in which consignments handled by various international courier companies appear not to have met these mandatory requirements. One such instance involved DHL Express shipment number 1653964793 from Ningbo Annto Logistics Technology Co., Ltd in China. In this case, the importer should have paid customs duties based on the declared Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value of US$15,727.43. The importer was therefore expected to pay more than Ksh 500,000 in duties, but reportedly paid far less.
Although such individual amounts may appear insignificant, considering that dozens of similar transactions take place each day, the total revenue lost runs into millions of shillings. Efforts to obtain a comment from Andrew Osoro, a senior KRA Revenue Officer at JKIA, on 30th September regarding the alleged collusion between international courier company employees and KRA officials, resulting in large-scale tax evasion and loss of revenue to the Exchequer, were unsuccessful. He declined to respond directly, merely stating via WhatsApp: “I have never been an employee of UPS.”
Similarly, questions sent to UPS through their local agents, G4S, on 13th October via email remain unanswered. Among other queries, The Weekly Vision sought to know whether UPS was willing to invite relevant investigative authorities to conduct an independent audit of all import consignments handled through JKIA over the past six months.
The tax evasion racket, which appears to benefit both KRA and courier service staff, continues unabated despite the Kenya Kwanza government’s ongoing efforts to boost revenue collection to fund its ambitious Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
JKIA was recently in the news after Jesse Da Mata Dos Santos, a British national, was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London with 20 kilogrammes of cocaine, having allegedly passed through Nairobi’s airport undetected despite rigorous security checks. The incident raised serious questions about possible collusion between drug traffickers and airport security and immigration personnel.
Following the incident, detectives arrested four men suspected of involvement in a major international cocaine trafficking network using JKIA as a transit hub. Rishad Abdulrahim Sheikh, the alleged ringleader, and his cousin Hajinur Yussuf Mohamed were apprehended at Nyali Centre in Mombasa during a joint operation conducted between 5th and 7th October by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)’s Transnational Organised Crime Unit (TOCU).
According to the DCI, the suspects are believed to have links with Dos Santos. Rishad, a dual Kenyan-British citizen, is alleged to have coordinated drug shipments through JKIA with the assistance of Muamar Mutua Mohammed, the syndicate’s logistics handler, and his cousin Adam Omari, both of whom were arrested in Nairobi.
During the Nairobi raid, TOCU officers reportedly seized 750 grammes of cocaine valued at Ksh 2.9 million, along with packaging materials believed to have been used to conceal drugs.
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