Times Tower, Kenya Revenue Authority headquarters in Nairobi.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) suffered multiple burglaries orchestrated by a sophisticated tax evasion syndicate, with nearly 24 million excise stamps lifted from a vault in the Times Tower headquarters in the three years to June, 2025.
One KRA staffer has been fired after being implicated in the series of vault breaches, with the taxman still investigating six of its workers believed to be part of the syndicate.
In her report on KRA for the financial year ending June, 2025, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu faults the taxman’s management for failing to report some of the heists to investigative agencies for further action and potential prosecution of culprits.
In October 2024, the taxman recorded three separate instances where a combined 13.6 million excise stamps for wine and alcohol spirits, soft drinks, and water were stolen, with them a potential revenue loss of Sh120.3 million, the public auditor says.
The stamps are often sold in the black market, where crooked businesses acquire them for purposes of camouflaging products for which they have not paid excise duty, with other items sold in retail stores.
Clients seeking services at KRA headquarters, Times Tower, Nairobi.
On Thursday, KRA Commissioner for Investigations Mohamed Abdul M'maka told the Nation that at least seven employees have been interdicted over the heists, with an official who represented SICPA SA at the Times Tower Vault, recalled by the multinational.
SICPA SA is the Swiss firm contracted by KRA to provide excise stamps and the technology for their tracking to ensure that all excisable goods are traced and taxed, called the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS).
It has a help desk at Times Tower for collection of physical stamps, essentially offering access to the vault.
“KRA has taken firm and decisive administrative and corrective actions in line with its zero-tolerance policy on integrity breaches:
“Seven staff were interdicted to allow for independent investigations and disciplinary processes. One officer found culpable has since been dismissed following due process, while other cases remain under review in accordance with the Authority’s human resource and integrity frameworks,” Mr M’maka said.
In the thefts running for at least three years, the KRA is reported to have lost stamps for tobacco, alcohol, water, soft drinks and other products, with the role a multinational Swiss firm contracted to provide the stamps now under scrutiny.
As a result, the Auditor-General now reveals in a new report, the taxman lost more than Sh120 million in October 2024 alone. The revenue loss is related to 13.6 million stamps used in wine, spirits, soft drinks and water.
Revenue loss from another 10 million stamps used for tobacco and other products has not been revealed, even as KRA management is accused of failing to report the heist to investigative agencies for action.
“Review of stock take report for the excise stamps as at 30 June, 2025 revealed a cumulative loss of excise stamps totaling 23,724,042 at KRA Vault - Times Tower,” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said.
All the losses are related to excise duty, popularly known as ‘sin tax’, and mostly imposed on alcoholic and tobacco products, and other products such as water, soft drinks, fuel, some imported vehicles and beauty products.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.
The tax is also imposed on services such as telephone and mobile data, M-Pesa transfers and betting.
The audit on revenue accountability statements for the year ending June 2025 notes that KRA recorded the theft of 60 percent of the stamps in October 2024 and June last year.
In June 2025, the taxman reported having lost 400,000 excise stamps for tobacco products, with an unknown amount of revenue attached to them.
Before that, 9.68 million stamps with an undisclosed revenue potential had been flagged as missing from the vault, but Ms Gathungu said no action has been taken on culprits.
“Although the 9,686,358 stamps were recorded as lost in 2023/2024, the loss was not reported to any Investigating Agency. Further, no status report on the Internal investigation was availed and there was no evidence of investigation being undertaken,” Ms Gathungu said.
KRA has admitted to the loss of all the stamps flagged by the audit and says some were lost between 2022 and 2024, “and in some cases earlier, but were not detected or escalated due to faults in manual processes and controls.”
KRA also says that a system-wide audit on the EGMS has since been undertaken to strengthen controls around receipt, custody, issuance, and reconciliation of excise stamps.
Swiss multinational firm, SICPA SA is the company contracted by KRA to implement the EGMS, and has a help desk at Times Tower for collection of physical stamps.
“The EGMS service provider took corrective measures, including replacing its representative stationed at the vault. A system-wide audit and strengthening of controls around the receipt, custody, issuance, and reconciliation of excise stamps has been implemented,” KRA said.
KRA did not reveal the total revenue losses as a result of theft of the excise stamps, even as one of its safest storage facilities at the headquarters is revealed to be prone to breaches.
Revenue from excise duty forms a huge part of taxes the KRA collects, contributing 28.6 percent of the Sh1 trillion taxes from goods and services in the last financial year.
Revenues from the stolen stamps would have formed part of the Sh287 billion excise duty the taxman collected during the year to June 2025.
KRA originally targeted to collect Sh2.917 trillion taxes but only realised Sh2.57 trillion at the end of the year, missing the original target by Sh346 billion.
Times Tower in Nairobi, the headquarters of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
While KRA maintains that some of the losses occurred before introduction of the EGMS in 2015 and were only captured during a joint stock-taking with SICPA SA when the new system was introduced, the public auditor says it has not provided any proof of this assertion.
“The basis of alleging that they were lost in the previous years was not supported as the stock take reconciliations are undertaken monthly and reported to Management. This shortfall had never been reported in any reconciliation in the alleged prior years,” the public auditor says.
She adds that KRA has not made any indications that it is investigating the theft, plus the stealing of 13.6 million stamps in October 2024.
KRA told the Nation that it has reinforced monthly stock reconciliations and automated controls to eliminate a recurrence and that it is working with investigative agencies “to determine any further culpability and pursue appropriate action.”
While the taxman also maintains it is working with investigating agencies, Ms Gathungu specifically says the 13.6 million stamps lost in October 2024 have not been reported anywhere.
“Internal investigation reports indicated that the losses occurred between 2022 and 2024, a fact which was not supported as they had not been reported,” she said.
KRA says investigations are ongoing “alongside engagement with relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure full accountability.”
The series of thefts has now exposed weaknesses at the office charged with ensuring all taxpayers pay their fair share, revealing how it could be losing billions of shillings in revenues, aided by insiders.
The revelation also comes just days after the authority revealed the interdiction of six staff, including senior officials and suspension of 21 cargo clearing agents over a tax evasion scheme at the Mombasa Port.
KRA investigations revealed a syndicate where consignments of imported cargo were allowed to enter the country without paying taxes, and Sh450 million was recovered following the probe. The investigations are reported to have widened and more culprits could be caught up with in the coming days.
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