Uhuru to have final say on who becomes next KRA boss

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta will have the final say on who becomes the next taxman-in-chief, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has said.

The KRA board, which is concluding interviews on Thursday, will forward an undisclosed number of names to the Finance minister to pick from.

This information emerged on Wednesday, meaning the President and prime minister may be relegated to bystanders or will have to go through the Finance minister if they want to influence who becomes the next KRA boss.

“The minister of Finance will appoint the commissioner-general from the candidates forwarded by the board. But the two other commissioners will be appointed by the board after the interviews are complete,” KRA spokesperson Kennedy Onyonyi told the Nation on phone.

He, however, declined to say when the names will be forwarded on grounds that the decision is a prerogative of the board.

The interviews are not open to the public.

“This is in line with the KRA Act,” Mr Onyonyi said. The Act empowers the minister to appoint the tax head while providing for appointment of the chairman by the President.

This leaves the headache of picking a candidate from a list of experienced insiders and high-standing outsiders in the hands of Mr Kenyatta.

Those in the race for the top job include Barclays Bank of Kenya’s managing director Adan A Mohamed and four serving commissioners of the authority.

Those expected to have faced the interviewing panel include the current commissioner for domestic tax department of large tax payers office (LTO), Mr John Njiraini and customs services commissioner Wambui Namu.

Other commissioners eying the post are Ms Helen W Bila and Ms Alice Achieng Owuor.

Mr James R Njuguna and James Gituro Wahome are the other two outsiders alongside the Barclays boss in the race.

The new candidate will replace Mr Michael Waweru who has presided over KRA for eight years and is retiring on March 3, 2012.