Kenyan in possession of Sh238m intercepted at JKIA

Main entrance of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi  [Elvis Ogina,Standard]

A Kenyan national was on Thursday afternoon, February 17, intercepted at the JKIA, Nairobi in possession of Sh238 million in foreign currency.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Customs Office said the suspect arrived from Bujumbura, Burundi, and had lied about the funds’ destination.

The taxman, in a statement, said the suspect had disguised the funds as a parcel.

On arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the passenger declared that the parcel had been sent from the Banque de Credit de Bujumbura (BCB), and that it was to be received by a private security company in Kenya.

“After clearance by Customs Unit at the airport, the traveller later, presented the same money at the Swiss Port Cargo shed with different export documents for shipment to a company in the United Kingdom.

“The documents produced to support the export request were different from those produced on entry into the country,” said KRA.

Inconsistencies in the passenger’s declarations prompted customs officers to seize the parcel.

KRA has now written to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to investigate the suspect, and whether he is linked to a money-laundering syndicate.

The incident comes barely three weeks after a Bahraini national was nabbed transporting Sh110.8m in cash through JKIA. He was in transit to Bahrain aboard Egyptair.

“The alert was that the passenger had earlier made several attempts to deposit the currency in a bank, but had failed,” said KRA.