The Employment and Labour Relations Court has thrown out a case against the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) by an ex-employee who sued after being fired unfair over a multimillion tax evasion scheme.
- Anthony Mwangi worked as Finance officer and later as a Supervisor in KRA between 2014 and 2022 but was dismissed after it was discovered that his login credentials for the clearance system had facilitated tax evasion.
- Between June 2018 and September 2020, Mwangi’s credentials had fraudulently activated the payment module in the Simba System to affirm payment of taxes for 43 entries.
- According to KRA, this led to a revenue loss of more than KSh 118 million, which was enough justification to dismiss Mwangi after a disciplinary hearing in 2022.
“I find that the claimant (Mwangi) has failed to prove a case of wrongful dismissal. His entire claim therefore fails and is dismissed,” Judge Linnet Ndolo ruled.
Mwangi denied the fraud allegations and requested for a forensic analysis report on his devices, which had been confiscated on April 2021. Once the investigations kicked off, he was moved from the revenue reporting section to the operations office before being dismissed in July 2022. In his show cause letter, KRA said that his credentials had been used to “facilitate tax evasion and subsequent irregular clearance of [] a consignment without payment of requisite taxes.”
“The Claimant did not offer any explanation as to how his credentials, which were issued to him personally, ended up being used in multiple devices over a considerable period of time,” the court ruled.
He had demanded reinstatement to his position in the authority without loss of benefits or KSh 2.04 million in 12-month salary compensation plus exemplary damages.
