Since the Kenya School of Revenue Administration (KESRA) was established tens of years ago, then as the Customs Training School with a mandate to serve the East African Community (EAC), it has grown significantly and in the process nurtured great careers and friendships. KESRA has greatly impacted the lives of many Customs and Tax officers over the years, not just within our borders but out there in the regions and beyond. KESRA has created Commissioners General and Commissioners, Tax Consultants and Customs Officers and many other professionals and public servants of repute- including some of who have since gone on to serve the country in other roles. Indeed even some Members of Parliament and Governors have passed through KESRA.
Networks
Evidently, almost every group of students that has passed through KESRA still maintains a strong linkage among its members. Most past Graduate Trainees have established their group networks through whatsapp and other media and through these forums they continue to nurture the professional as well as personal friendships, whose seeds they planted while at the Customs Training School in the 1970s, Kenya Revenue Authority Training School (KRATI) in the 1980 and 90s and KESRA after the turn of the century.
The year 2016 is a watershed year for KESRA and we are absolutely proud to step out and begin a new exciting journey of expansion and deepening our academic and technical products.
So what are our new frontiers? For a long time KESRA offered Graduate Trainee programs at the diploma level only for the internal Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) clientele. Then, KESRA was a small department that consumed more than it produced. We have now departed from this position and our sights are trained on new horizons of market relevance and self-sufficiency. Our long term goal is to fully finance our operations from the programs we offer. We can only do so by refocusing our energies. We have also departed from the inward approach to a more outward approach as far as training is concerned and we are now expanding our partnerships at all levels. We want to become a trainer for Kenya and Africa and not just a trainer for KRA.
JKUAT
This year marks the entry by KESRA into the postgraduate arena. KESRA is reenergizing and refocusing its programs in a bid to be more relevant to the market. We are committed to participate in a more robust way in knowledge and skill dissemination and, consequently, economy building. Particularly we are currently offering programs in Tax and Customs all the way from Certificate to Masters Levels (excluding Bachelor’s degrees). For post graduate levels we are partnering with respected universities including the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Moi University in Kenya. We have also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Munster of Germany.
KESRA has achieved various other milestones in the last 12 months. For instance our certificate and Diploma programs are now accredited by Kenya’s Technical and Vocational Training Authority (TVETA) and the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA). KESRA is also one of the four Regional Training Centers (RTC) of the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Africa. Besides, KESRA is also a member of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU) among others.
KESRA is also gearing up to take up its rightful place among the distinguished corporate trainers in the areas of tax, customs and fiscal management. Our target is to become the number one corporate trainer for East, Central and Southern Africa in these areas in the next three to five years.
Three storey
To achieve this feat we are in the process of lining up the best possible faculty and at the same time modernizing our facilities. We are particularly excited with the prospect of taking possession of a new building Nairobi- a beautiful three storey facility for use by our Nairobi campus. We have also already published an elaborate short courses calendar as a first step towards becoming the preferred corporate trainer in our areas. Further to this, we have opened discussions with major organizations and corporate entities in the areas of short courses.
Cleary, the future for KESRA can only be exciting. We have what it takes to move into this future. We have the intention and the determination to achieve our very ambitious objectives. Please join the KESRA family and let us together beckon the future to us.