The Nation (Nairobi)
Gitonga Marete
8 July 2009
Nairobi — The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has signed agreements with a world revenue organisation in order to enhance training at its Mombasa's training institute.
Commissioner General Michael Waweru on Wednesday said KRA had signed a memorandum of understanding with the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the University of Canberra and the East and Southern Africa Management Institute that will enable the institute offer diploma and degree programmes.
"We are in the process of repositioning KRATI as a centre of excellence in training on revenue administration (and) our aim is to offer world class training in the unique areas of customs and tax," he said.
Mr Waweru was speaking during the official opening of the WCO regional Green Customs Initiative workshop at the institute which serves as the WCO regional training centre for customs officers serving east and southern African countries.
The four-day training is aimed at equipping participants of over 20 countries in the region with knowledge on how customs officials can work together in order to stamp out world illegal trade in hazardous materials and endangered animal species and trophies.
Mr Bonaventure Ebayi, director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force which initiated the border protection training for customs officers said the programme had equipped officers with knowledge to deal with cross border smuggling of wild animals and flora and fauna.
He noted that the level of smuggling of wildlife trophies and live animals had increased over the past three years.
"In this year alone, over 12 tonnes of elephant ivory and over 120 reptiles have been seized by customs officers in Asian and European countries that originated from Africa," he said.
WCO Secretary General Mr Kunio Mikuriya said the organisation would encourage sharing of information among customs officers world wide to deal with such illegal trade.
He said using "globally networked systems", the WCO had managed to track and seize endangered products in joint operations that would have been smuggled across borders.
"The Regional Intelligence Liaison Office plays a major role in ensuring regional cooperation and to organize joint operations. Information Technology has enabled customs to be connected electronically to each other, which has facilitated exchange of information," he said.
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