Now TRA to investigate Kakobe’s wealth

Dar es Salaam. A few days after Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church Bishop Zachary Kakobe claimed he is richer than the government, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has said it will now investigate the source of his income.

The taxman is interested in determining whether or not the man-of the-cloth’s wealth is from church collections only.

This was revealed yesterday by TRA Commissioner General Charles Kichere, during a press conference in the city.

“In our records, Bishop Kakobe is not among the richest people who are paying taxes in this country. We will investigate him to find out if he has other sources of income apart from church collections,” he said.

He added: “We are aware that other religious organisations have various sources of income and they are paying tax; we will, therefore, conduct investigations.”

The TRA chief urged Bishop Kakobe to cooperate with the authorities during the investigation.

On Wednesday, during Boxing Day sermons, Bishop Kakobe claimed that he has more money than the government.

During the sermons, Bishop Kakobe said he has money enough to lend to some ministries.

However, speaking during a press conference yesterdaym, the TRA Commissioner General said the authority has no records of Bishop Kakobe’s wealth.

“As a taxman, we are happy Bishop Kakobe has declared that he is wealthier than the government, but in our records he isn’t one of the best tax payers; that is why we plan to investigate him,” said Mr Kichere.

He added: “We understand that he isn’t obliged to pay tax from church collections, but that’s the reason we are planning to investigate him, to see if he has other income-generation projects.”

Bishop Kakobe has recently been critical of President John Magufuli’s administration. He used his Christmas and Boxing Day sermons to criticise the government, accusing the fifth phase administration of suppressing freedom of expression.

And just a day after Boxing Day, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Home Affairs, Major General (retired) Projest Rwegasira, warned clerics against using their pulpits to ‘talk politics”.

The senior government official threatened to deregister churches whose leaders talk politics on the pulpit.

But his threats sparked a backlash from human rights activists, some politicians and clerics themselves, who described it as legally baseless and unwarranted.