Due to the unavailability of policy to monitor cash inflows, the amnesty granted to Kenya in 2018 by the USA led to over Sh800 billion money laundering. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich offered amnesty in 2016 to facilitate tax payment; this made it possible for Kenyans to repatriate money from offshore accounts while concealing the origin. It was reported yesterday by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) failed to adopt a policy to tell if the money was returned. The KRA has been unable to confirm that $7.9 billion registered funds were not transferred out of Kenya again, which then raised suspicion that the amnesty granted to the country has helped the laundering of illegal funds.
Mr Rotich said in 2018 that uptake on the amnesty has been very low due to concerns that questions would emerge about the source of the fund if it is eventually returned. The United States had said the Nation knows that most of the funds were transferred from India, Mauritius and Seychelles but KRA failed to track it or confirm if it was returned as “clean money.” It also said that the banks in Kenya are susceptible to money laundering, fraud, and terrorism financing giving Standard Chartered Equity, Diamond Trust, Co-operative and KCB banks that were fined a total of Sh392.5 million by CBK as examples. It also accused the national assembly of failing to pass amendments to the Proceed of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act to extend reporting requirements to lawyers, notaries and other independent legal professionals who are accused of being used to clean dirty money.
