Obtaining a PIN

Happy Anniversary!

It has been exactly one year since the Mildred Smith mission health center was registered in the United States as a nonprofit organization. Whenever you are working in Africa, it is always a given that things are going to move more slowly than you expect. That being said, it has been a lot slower than I hoped, if not slower than I expected!

But progress is being made. After getting the registration back in August, the next step was to get a personal identification number (PIN) from the Kenya Revenue Authority. This is a number, somewhat like the Social Security number in the United States, which identifies an individual or a business to the government. That was billed as being a relatively simple procedure, which could be done online.  Eric Odida, the local representative for the company, made the application with the help of friends at the KRA, so we would be assured that it was done correctly. After two or three weeks, we had not heard anything from them online, so I went in to the KRA office in Nairobi to investigate. There I was told that the application had been rejected, and that the reason was that I had to be the one to apply for the PIN for the company since I was the Foreign Director.  I was also told that they had sent an email telling me about the rejection, but when I questioned that, it was found that the email had not been sent.

One of the reasons why we had Eric make the application, was because it was required that the applicant actually have a personal PIN, which I did not have.  So I went online to apply for my PIN, which required that I enter the PIN of the company that I was working for, which of course we did not have.  Checking in at the Kisumu KRA revealed that this was a situation beyond their capability to resolve, so my wife Judi and I went back to Nairobi again to see what could be done.  We were given the name of a person at the Nairobi office, but when I went to enquire about seeing her, they entrance desk people insisted I go to “window 8” where I would be assisted.  When I explained my situation to that gentleman, I was directed to window 13, where I was told that nothing could be done, but there was a gentleman at the Kenya Investment Authority who would be able to clear up all of my paperwork issues and if I got a note from him, they could give me an individual PIN.  It was a Friday afternoon, and when we got to the KIA, our gentleman was not available, but a lady said she could assist us.  It soon became evident that she could not, as she really had no experience with a case like ours, but she did give us some paperwork on NGO (Nongovernmental Organization) registration.  As we were leaving the office, we got a call from the gentleman we were looking for, and he said he could assist us us on Monday morning.

Monday morning at 8:00 we met with him, and another gentleman in his office. He assured us that by virtue of us being a nonprofit organization and having over $100,000 dollars to invest, we did qualify for their help, but only as an NGO.  If we were registered as an NGO, then he could give us the authorization to get a PIN.  They then referred us to the NGO Board, where we were told that we didn’t need to speak to anyone until we had filled out the online paperwork, starting with a name search to verify that the name was not being used by anyone else.  When I told them it was being used because we were already registered, we were told the first step then would be unregister the clinic, and then start the registration process.  This all sounded vaguely familiar, like, what we had just done to get registered in the first place.  This was confirmed when we were told that after the name was cleared, our application would be sent to NIS for vetting, and it would take 6 months!  I explained that I had just been vetted, and would hope that the original vetting would be enough, but was told since this was a new company, the process would have to be repeated.

Needless to say, we were a little discouraged at the prospect of starting all over again, particularly with no assurance of a successful outcome.  We seemed to be out of options, but the power of networking saved the day. In Kenya, people survive because of the network of people around them, whether it is family (which includes your “cousins” who are not related to you, but are from the same village), schoolmates, business associates, etc.  Without these contacts, you really do not have a chance in such an otherwise dysfunctional system. Eric Odida reached out to his former boss, Jack Ranguma, the former governor of Kisumu county.  As well as being the former governor, Jack Ranguma had previously been the first indigenous Tax Commissioner in Kenya, and had written a lot of the tax code for the country.  He did not know of any reason why there should be an issue getting the PIN, so he asked us to accompany him to the KRA to see what could be done.

Jack Ranguma is still held in high regard at the KRA, and everyone knew him, either from when he was there or from his large portrait in the board room.  We were taken to the Deputy Commissioner’s office, and after the situation was explained, he called in Wanja, the Assistant Manager of the Domestic Taxes Department to see what the real issue was.  She explained that the real issue was that they needed to have some way of verifying that I was who I said I was, and that I was in the country legally.  There is no communication between the various government departments, like Immigration or the Attorney General’s office, so the fact that I had a visa and had been vetted by the National Intelligence Service, could not be used officially by the KRA to certify who I was, so they had decided internally that the criteria they would use would be if someone had a work permit, they could verify that they were who their passport said they were.  It was simply a bureaucratic workaround, because no one wanted to be responsible for making a mistake!

Wanja was then directed to take us to her office, while Jack Ranguma waited in the Deputy Commissioner’s office, and find a way to resolve our problem.  She called in Jacinta, the lady who actually pushes the button to give the PIN. Jacinta proceeded to explain again why it was impossible, and so she and Wanja stepped out for a few moments.  Eric told me that the discussion was probably along the lines of, “These people are here with the former Commissioner, and we are to tell them how we are going to do it, not why it can’t be done”.  I don’t know what the real conversation was, but on their return, the decision had been made that I could hand write a letter stating that I would turn in a copy of my work permit when I got it, and in the meantime, they would use that as if it was a work permit and grant me my PIN!  So Jacinta pushed the button, and voila, my PIN appeared!  Thank you Jack Ranguma and all of the folks at the KRA for the invaluable assistance!

With my PIN in hand, I went online to apply for the PIN for the clinic. Everyone said it should only take a few days to come through. So when 2 weeks had passed, and there was no notification from the KRA, I decided to call Wanja to see if she could check and see what was going on- if I needed some more documentation or whatever.  She said she would, and 2 hours later, the Mildred Smith Mission Health Center had it’s very own PIN!