Humphrey Wattanga Mulongo Appointed New Commissioner General of KRA

Humphrey Wattanga Mulongo has been appointed as the new Commissioner General of the Kenya Revenue Authority.

He takes over from Commissioner of Domestic Taxes, Rispah Simiyu, who was acting after the exit of Githii Mburu who resigned in February.

In a gazette notice dated August 22, 2023, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u stated that Mr. Mulongo will serve in the position for a period of three years, starting with immediate effect.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 11 (1) of the Kenya Revenue Authority Act, 1995, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning appoints— Humphrey Wattanga Mulongo to be the Commissioner General of Kenya Revenue Authority, for a period of three (3) years, with effect from the 22nd August, 2023,” read the notice.

Mr. Mulongo, who now takes up the position, describes himself as a “seasoned corporate and public finance professional with a strong interest in the systematic analysis of transformative market opportunities and the evaluation of their potential.”

He studied in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University, before proceeding to the Wharton School for his Master of Business Administration, majoring in Information Systems Strategy and Economics.

“After gaining years of invaluable experience in the United States, initially with a pioneering web-based ERP technology firm (Agillion Inc.) and later with the world’s largest telecommunications company (AT&T), I moved to South Africa in 2004 and established a successful financial advisory firm that provided cross-border corporate finance and transaction advisory services to public and private sector clients on the continent,” reads his Curriculum Vitae.

“Ten years ago, I returned home and introduced a robust system for automating bond trading to the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Subsequently, we built a mobile gateway onto the platform, linking the bond trading system to Kenya’s pervasive mobile money market.”

It adds: “This expanded investment participation in the capital markets to include the previously excluded Mama Mboga. The National Treasury used the platform to issue the world’s first mobile-only government bond, M-Akiba. The Kenya Kwanza administration is planning on reviving issuance of the M-Akiba bond, for purposes of investing savings deducted from the Hustler Fund.”

The new KRA boss has, for the past six years, served full-time as a Commissioner on the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), rising to the position of Vice Chair.

He presently serves as Managing Partner at Meghraj Capital Limited, and is also a Director at the Nordic Impact Fund as well as the Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV) Limited.