{"id":13664,"date":"2024-03-16T09:03:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T09:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/03\/16\/kra-faces-probe-over-pregnancy-hiv-tests-for-recruits\/"},"modified":"2024-03-16T09:03:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T09:03:18","slug":"kra-faces-probe-over-pregnancy-hiv-tests-for-recruits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kra-faces-probe-over-pregnancy-hiv-tests-for-recruits\/","title":{"rendered":"KRA faces probe over pregnancy, HIV tests for recruits"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16 \u2013<\/strong> Kenyan MPs are investigating the recent recruitment of tax revenue workers after it emerged that some applicants were rejected after doing HIV and pregnancy tests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said it had disqualified 133 job applicants after they did the tests last year.<\/p>\n

They were set to undergo paramilitary training to prepare them for their roles as tax collection enforcers.<\/p>\n

Kenyan law prohibits discrimination in hiring based on health status.<\/p>\n

The news that recruits had been subjected to medical tests visibly shocked and angered MPs when it was revealed in a parliamentary session on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that gross violation of rights has been committed in the recruitment,\u201d said Mandera West MP Adan Haji, who chairs the National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust accept that you have grossly violated over 20 Articles of the constitution and the relevant laws on human rights,\u201d he told senior KRA officials.<\/p>\n

The tests were defended by KRA commissioner for domestic taxes Rispah Simiyu, who said the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), which conducted paramilitary training on the 1,406 revenue service assistants (RSAs) \u201calways subject recruits to HIV\/AIDs and pregnancy tests\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RSA has a dimension of paramilitary training, which requires physical fitness and protection of life during training,\u201d Ms Simiyu said. \u201cThis approach was purely anchored on health and safety for this group of persons to help maintain training readiness and reduce risk to potential recruits.\u201d<\/p>\n

KRA commissioner-general Humphrey Wattanga told the committee that the 133 results were confidential and denied discriminating against people based on their HIV\/Aids status.<\/p>\n

The MPs, however, demanded to know why the job hunters were rejected given that the law prohibits discrimination in recruitment based on health status.<\/p>\n

The legislators dismissed the explanation by revenue officials, saying that not all paramilitary training requires HIV tests. They also questioned the role of the military in the recruitment.<\/p>\n

The MPs vowed to open a full-scale inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matter needs time, but before that, KRA should explain why we should not force them to hire the 133 with immediate effect,\u201d said Kasipul MP Ong\u2019ondo Were.<\/p>\n

Teso North MP Oku Kaunya called for \u201can in-depth probe into the operations of KRA so that our resolutions and proposals will serve as an example to other organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n

This comes barely two weeks after the High Court nullified the recruitment of all 1,406 revenue workers on the grounds that it was skewed in favour of two communities.<\/p>\n

The court ruled that recruitment was unconstitutional since it picked the majority of recruits from the president\u2019s and deputy president\u2019s ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

The KRA\u2019s explanation that there was a higher number of applications from the two communities was not supported by statistics, the court ruled.<\/p>\n

The recruitment is part of the government\u2019s efforts to increase revenue collection and weed out tax evaders.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16 \u2013 Kenyan MPs are investigating the recent recruitment of tax revenue workers after it emerged that some applicants were rejected after doing HIV and pregnancy tests. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said it had disqualified 133 job applicants after they did the tests last year. They were set to undergo paramilitary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}