The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is looking to expand its strategy towards tax collection by monitoring rich Kenyans who display lavish lifestyles on social media but pay little or no taxes.

KRA Commissioner-General Githii Mburu says that his officers have been spending time on social media, trolling Kenyans posting photos of their luxurious lives and properties. This is all in a bid to ensure that their taxes are in line with the images they present to the world.

This is seen as a amove to check up the growing numbers of Kenyans who keep splashing their lives on social media. This is especially important at a time when people tend to earn their living as socialites and social media influencers. According to the taxman, it is about time that every Kenyan pays their fair share of taxes.

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

Those found to be cheating their taxes risk travel bans, collection of duty from their suppliers and bankers and prosecution. The crackdown by the KRA could emerge to be the biggest yet on high net worth individuals in the country.

This comes at a time when the KRA has been targeting to bring more people into the tax bracket and curb tax cheating and evasion in a mission to meet targets.

“In social media, we have some people posting some nice things. You would see some posting nice houses, cars, taking their families to nice places and so on. Here, we are not sleeping, when we see those, we see taxes,” Mr Mburu said in an interview with the Business Daily.

“We have our officers looking, they have gadgets. They key in very quickly (the number plate) to check. We are working exceptionally hard,” he said.