The start of the year continues to offer new tides as a revolution takes place within the tax administration, shifting the normal image of compliance from physical queues to mobile chats on our phones.
This is as a result of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) rolling out a 24-hour WhatsApp chatbot, a digital front door that already supports 15 services, allowing taxpayers to ask questions and file returns remotely. This strategy is positioned as a cost-reduction play for both the citizen and the government.
By meeting people where they are, KRA is simplifying the process and actively reshaping the relationship between the state and the taxpayer. According to Humphrey Wattanga, KRA Commissioner General, this is more than just a helpful chatbot.
“KRA is investing in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics in order to enhance how taxes are managed,” he said.
This will see a shift towards a future of automated guidance, dramatically faster issue resolution, and a new era of enforcement. Basically, the aim is to move from broad, manual audits to targeted, intelligence-led interventions powered by data.
So first, KRA will broaden the compliance funnel by making filing as frictionless as possible, then strengthen the back-end detection capabilities to identify evasion and leakages with precision. It is a strategy of building trust through ease, then leveraging that trust to ensure fairness and equity.
Ndiritu Muriithi, KRA Chairman stated that these ongoing IT and software upgrades are already showing results. They reduce paperwork and lower costs for taxpayers while also modernizing the authority’s internal workflows, creating a more efficient institution.
And this modernization is critical because the entire tax ecosystem is increasingly running on digital rails, from eTIMS to various validation requirements. The less friction KRA can remove on the front-end for the compliant taxpayer, the more legitimacy it accrues when it must tighten verification and pursue evaders on the back-end.
In fact, the results from the second half of the 2025/26 financial year up to December 2025 give compelling momentum to this reform. KRA managed to collect Sh307.63 billion against a target of Sh284.97 billion, reporting a 29.3% growth.
Customs and Border Control brought in Sh85.93 billion, beating its target of Sh83.01 billion and marking the highest monthly customs collection on record. Such performance strengthens KRA’s internal case for continued technological investment, as it continues to prove its value.
Simultaneously, it signals to the Treasury that gains in compliance and efficiency can partially offset the nation’s persistent revenue pressures. However, the true test lies on whether this move will translate to consistent filing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the vast, informal economy.
