In the spirit of celebrating International Women’s Day, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has launched a tax club at Mary Hill Girls High School aimed at promoting tax knowledge among the young girls and fostering a culture of tax compliance.
KRA’s tax club initiative is a countrywide outreach program designed to raise tax awareness among students in high schools and colleges, with the goal of instilling a tax-paying culture in the youthful population. The program has already reached over 1000 schools and 15,000 students.
The Mary Hill chapter of the tax club was launched during this year’s International Women’s Day celebrations to signify KRA’s commitment to empowering and celebrating women. The tax club will equip over 400 students with fundamental tax administration knowledge, including various tax heads, the uses of tax, KRA’s mandate, tax audit procedures, and international tax regulations, among other topics. By instilling a sense of responsibility for paying taxes and promoting a tax compliance culture, the program is preparing students for future employment.
Through the tax club initiative, students become ambassadors for public education on tax issues, creating a voluntary taxpaying culture among Kenyans and inculcating a positive attitude towards tax compliance from a very early age.
KRA supports these tax clubs by organizing tax debates, symposia, tax talks, writing competitions, and other activities. Additionally, KRA provides club members with adequate tax information, enabling them to disseminate tax knowledge to other students, their communities, and neighboring institutions.
KRA is committed to enhancing the capacity of these schools and turning them into Centers of Excellence for basic tax concepts. These centers will serve as resources for other schools seeking guidance on taxation matters, conduct online programs, and initiate tax clubs in their regions. The snowballing approach is expected to enhance recruitment of additional schools to establish their own tax clubs and recruit additional tax ambassadors, further enhancing tax literacy, perception and morale among the school-going population.
KRA is investing in tax literacy programs to enable students to appreciate the importance of paying taxes.