I'm Pharell HAPPY today

After yesterday's rant about my inability to get a KRA pin form and my bad experience with a customer service official, i'm happy to report that something was actually done! Today morning my email was flooded with responses from various  KRA staff and probably the top bosses there apologizing for what happened. Hey I even got my pin certificate sent to me!

Sample these emails...

Thank you for your correspondence. Your issue has been noted and is being addressed. You will be given appropriate feedback as soon as possible. Please continue to communicate and help us serve you better. 

(this one is probably an automated response but hey, I felt better)

Hello Lila, 

My apologies on behalf of KRA for the way you have been handled while trying to access our services. Could you please call me we see how to address the matter. 

Regards, 

Maureen Njongo 

Chief Manager |Corporate & Public Affairs Division |Marketing & Communication Department |Kenya Revenue Authority| P.O. Box 48240- 00100 Nairobi | Times Tower| 

I have been instucted by my boss to reset your password so you may be able to log in and access your PI profile on the KRA WEBSITE. I have done this already and herein i also do attach a copy of your PIN certificate just incase you have problems logging in.

 

Thankyou

(of course i wont write her name here just because she could be the rude customer care official  and I dont need to embarass her on the net)

Morning Lila please note that we have reset your password, you may check your e-mail and retry however i have also attached a copy of your PIN certificate for your reference. 

Kindly accept my apology on behalf of KRA for the poor customer service experienced yesterday. Any time you visit Times Tower again you may talk to me if you don't mind. Am at ground floor room 3. 

Thank you for highlighting this issue. 

Sila Miriam M. 

Online Services-Manager 

These responses had a string of conversations among them that showed they were trying to figure out what the problem was and trying to sort it out.

So today i'm Pharell happy :) and I am so glad public service in Kenya is actually not as bad as i thought. Our voices are indeed heard.

Tears for Mdada

O.M.G. this has been the toughest day so far in regards to Mdada. I'm currently in the process of registering the name Mdada and I can't believe what i'm going through. It's almost like some force is trying to stop me form doing this (i'm a superstitious girl at times). So this is my problem. To register the name Mdada which by the way i thought suitable because it is  slang for young girl in Tanzania. I liked the name and I believe it would make sense to Swahili speakers across Africa and especially here in Kenya where i'm launching this enterprise. 

To register  the name requires that i have a pin form from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which I believe is just a form that shows that I have a pin and therefore I ought to pay tax from whatever income I make. It should be a simple process to get one. One only needs to go on KRA's website, sign in with your pin number and email address to get access to your account and then print the form from there. 

I tried to do this from a cyber at Embassy house which is opposite Sheria house which is where people register companies. When the cyber attendant and I requested for one, it delayed to be sent so I decided to just go and follow it up at KRA office (in fact it was never sent to my email) itself which was about 10 min away. The queue there!!!! I couldn't believe i had to queue for such a small issue and plus i hated the fact that i wouldn't be able to get the pin form in time before the Sheria offices close a 3pm. I decided to do it the following day and I did. After queue for almost an hour,the official simply reset my password and sent me an email to go and try the process at home. I had been through this process on my own and I was hoping her intervention would somehow work. It didn't. I have written emails to KRA and got a response form another customer service official which was unhelpful. He just asked me to do the same thing i had done before.

I seriously don't understand why i'm having such a tough time with this. I have other more more important things to do like work on my designs for Mdada clothing/meet the girls I will be helping...Anyway, today i was met with a rude customer service official at KRA and this just pulled the last straw from me. I tried to explain to her what had happened and she still insisted on doing the same thing other officials had done which is resetting my password and sending it to my email which has not been working since the first time i tried which was Thursday last week! So i decided to blog, i think it helps me let out the frustration. Other than this of course i've sent a complaint to the Commissioner at KRA (from the email address provided on the site). I hope they do something about it. It's been a long day. This is just the beginning and i will need grace to get through all other upcoming hurdles. I'm a fighter, aluta continua.