One of President Uhuru Kenyatta's nominees was on Wednesday, September 25, rejected from a top government position.
Reports by Daily Nation disclosed that, former Isiolo woman representative Tiya Galgalo was the only nominee rejected by Members of Parliament (MPs) for the position of National Lands Commission (NLC) membership.
This is after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) invalidated her tax compliance certificate, while eight other nominees were cleared for the same.
The successful nominees include lawyer Gershom Otachi as the chair of NLC, Esther Murungi, James Tuitoek, Reginald Okumu, Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji, Kazungu Kambi, Getrude Nduku and Alsiter Murimi Mutugi as members.
To be appointed to any government position, one is required to have been cleared by KRA.
However, this was not the case for Tiya, who KRA Commissioner General James Mburu's report confirmed that Tiya had not filed her tax returns for 2017 and 2018.
According to the KRA boss, Ms Galgalo was then contacted for an explanation of why her returns had not been filed for two years.
Past reports by Nation disclosed that on receiving the news Tiya, who has been an employee of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) since 2017, as well as an executive in the County Government of Isiolo, filed nil returns, despite being in gainful employment.
Mburu noted that as the authority was validating her returns, Tiya went ahead and amended the nil returns she had initially filed, to reflect an income of Ksh8.35 million from PSC and Ksh3.13 million from the county government.
Galgalo had submitted the same tax compliance certificate to the NLC selection panel and the vetting committee.
The KRA boss also disclosed that the authority had launched internal investigations to unearth how a fake certificate was issued, adding that he would report the findings to the committee.
“We are investigating our staff to establish who helped her in obtaining the fake compliance certificate; it cannot be valid until we verify the details,” Mburu told the MPs.
