Rispah Simiyu: Decorated Career Of New Acting KRA General Commissioner

On Thursday, February 23, Githii Mburu resigned as the Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General to pursue other personal interests.

In a circular, Board Chairperson Anthony Mwaura announced the appointment of Rispah Simiyu as the new Commissioner General in Acting capacity.

Here is her profile as gathered by WoK.

Education

Rispah holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Dar Es Salaam where she undertook the course between 1998-2001.

She also holds a Masters of Laws (LL.M.) in International Trade and Investment from the University of Nairobi.

She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Fellow Chartered and Certified Accountant (FCCA).

She is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, a member of the Law Society of Kenya and a Certified Public Secretary.

According to her LinkedIn, Rispah first worked at Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC) as a manager in the tax services department from September 2001 to December 2010.

After leaving PwC, she joined Standard Chartered Bank where she worked as a regional tax manager responsible for the bank’s branches in East Africa.

She served in this capacity for 7 years; from January 2011 to April 2018.

While at the Bank, she also served as a member of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) Finance and Audit Committee.

As the Chairperson of the Tax Sub-Committee, she was responsible for, among others, training management and staff of KBA members on existing and emerging tax issues.

In April 2018, Rispah joined the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as a deputy commissioner in the tax dispute resolution department.

While serving in this role, she grew the dispute resolution profile from settlement of 90 disputes to 284 disputes from 2018 to 2020.

She served in this capacity for two years and seven months before she was promoted to the domestic taxes department as the commissioner.

Rispah served as the KRA domestic taxes department commissioner until her appointment as the Acting KRA Commissioner General effective Thursday, February 23.