An Egyptian national on Friday, November 8, narrated her experience at the Jomo Kenya International Airport after staff from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) allegedly disrespected her.
In a statement, Dina Sherif, an Executive Director at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship expressed her shock at the charges she was asked to pay for the personal items she had carried in transit.
The Egyptian narrated how she once read of the harsh regime imposed on travellers in Kenya but had yet to experience it.
“I read this piece that Efosa Ojomo wrote about his experience at the Nairobi airport when he wrote it.
All I kept thinking at the time was thank God my country, Egypt, stopped behaving like that. Tonight, I landed at the airport in Nairobi only to experience what Efosa went through multiplied,” she wrote.
According to the statement, Diana had 15 books, 20 t-shirts, and some MIT caps, for which she was first asked to pay Kshs 155, 640.
Egyptian National narrates encounter with KRA officials at JKIA
The customs officers at the airport then lowered the amount to Kshs 123,215 and later to Kshs 103, 760.
Her concern, however, was the fact that the customs officers lacked a proper way of quantifying the value of her items.
“All the while nobody would explain to me how they were reaching these calculations,” part of the statement read.
Sherif claimed that her items did not have price tags, and she wondered why the KRA officials at the airport were assigning arbitrary values to them.
“It is worth noting that these items did not have price tags, so they were assigning whatever value they wanted. Over and above, they were disrespectful.
They treated my colleague and me with disrespect, calling us idiots and yelling at us. They confiscated my colleague’s passport and would not return it until we agreed to pay,” Sherif alleged.
Also Read: KRA Clarifies on Phones That Passengers Will Be Required to Pay Taxes For
The Egyptian national further claimed that even after agreeing to pay the charges for her items to the KRA officials, their system was down, causing her to spend more time at the airport after a long journey.
She criticized the Kenyan government for subjecting her to such an experience.
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“After agreeing to pay, it took them an hour to generate a receipt. When I tried to pay by credit card, their system was down. After seven attempts to pay, they finally agreed to give us the passport but kept our belongings! This whole experience took up five hours of my life after a 22-hour journey! Shame on you, Kenya. I expected better,” Sherif said.
Her sentiments were echoed by CNN correspondent, Larry Madowo, who also said he has experienced the same ordeal at the airport.
Kenya Revenue Authority responds to Egyptian National claims
“Kenya keeps extorting and harassing visitors at the airport. It’s about to get worse with mandatory phone IMEI registration
JKIA is a terrible experience overall but KRA is working extra hard to make it unbearable,” Madowo alleged.
KRA responded to Dina’s message and express regrets over the incident that occurred.
Also Read: KRA Issues Fresh Directive on Mobile Phones
“The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) recognizes the recent delay in service delivery at JKIA and the concerns surrounding the situation.
We sincerely apologize to all who were affected by the inconvenience and appreciate the feedback that helps us enhance our processes. We are committed to learning from these experiences to better serve all passengers coming into our great beloved country of Kenya.
Senior teams are looking into this matter to get an amicable solution,” the Authority said.
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