Nairobi, Sept. 6 -- For years, tax compliance in Kenya followed a relatively familiar script. A business could keep its books, prepare its tax computations, file its returns and pay whatever tax it declared due. As far as the numbers could be supported by the company's accounting records, then management could reasonably believe that the business was compliant.

However, that world is rapidly disappearing. Kenya is moving towards a fundamentally different tax environment - one in which the question is no longer simply what you declared to KRA. Rather, does what you declared agree with what KRA already knows about your business? That distinction may prove to be one of the most consequential changes in tax administration for Kenyan business...