Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has apologised to the public for the inconvenience caused by a technical hitch on its Customs system on Monday.
The system broke down from 3pm causing delays in the collection of billions of shillings in revenue and countless losses to importers.
Senior Deputy Commissioner marketing and communication, Kennedy Onyonyi, said the slowness of the system was caused by service outage of its main network link through one of its service providers.
Onyonyi however said at a press conference Thursday the hitch has since been restored through activation of an alternative link. Senior Deputy Commissioner information and communication technology (ICT) Mr Ezekiel Saina said following the recurrence of the problem, KRA is taking measures to find a lasting solution.
The agency will increase service providers from two to four, which will also be put in redundant mode where a backup server takes over a primary server that fails, allowing continuity of service with no down time.
The Authority recently experienced another technical glitch on the Simba System, which caused delays for importers and clearing agents at the Mombasa port.
According to clearing agents, when the customs system breaks down for even one hour, a huge backlog of cargo is created
Speaking Thursday, Onyonyi said the Authority was aware of the concerns raised over the slowness of the systems especially the Customs system. He said KRA would continuously monitore the system to improve performance to ensure optimality.
