Details of New KRA Commissioner General Who Topped 1990 KCSE

Until his appointment as Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General, Humphrey Mulongo Wattanga was not known to many. 

Mulongo holds a bachelor's Degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Until his appointment to KRA, Wattanga was working as the managing director of Meghraj Capital Limited, the investment banking advisory arm of the Meghraj Group. The firm deals with among other issues, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and partnerships.

Wattanga recently concluded his six-year term as Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Commission on Revenue Allocation before becoming Managing Director of Meaj Capital Group.

He describes himself as a corporate finance professional with over 20 years of international experience mobilizing capital and structured financial transactions in the public and private sectors.

He prides himself in being a man of many firsts including being the top candidate for Kenya's Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 1990.  He sat his exams in one of the most decorated secondary schools; The Alliance High School.

He was a pupil of Uhuru Primary School before joining the Alliance High School. He was position 20 nationally in the 1986 KCPE.

After sitting his KCSE, he was awarded a full scholarship to Harvard University, where he majored in Biochemical Sciences and graduated with honours after cloning a gene for a key factor involved in genetic-switching mechanisms. 

"He has also been keenly focused on the application of technology to gain efficiencies and deliver targeted outcomes," KRA said in a statement appointing him as the new boss.

He began his career in 1991 as an intern in the accounts department of East Africa Industries (UNILEVER) in Nairobi under the tutelage of Micah Cheserem who was the then Chief Accountant.

Wattanga would then start his career as a trained professional in the United States working for the largest telecommunications company (AT&T) before relocating to South Africa for a decade as a Senior Partner of AFCORP Investments Limited, a specialist corporate finance and transaction advisory firm undertaking and structuring capital-raising transactions across the continent.

"He played a key role in the conceptualization, design, development, and implementation of a groundbreaking mobile gateway platform that linked Kenya's mobile money platforms to the Nairobi Securities Exchange, which was used to launch the M-Akiba bond," the KRA board said in a statement.

Wattanga has served as a member of the investment committee of Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV), a pioneering climate-smart investment platform that supports small and medium-sized enterprises.

He received the Nelson Mandela Hope Worldwide scholarship to the Wharton School of Business, where he graduated with a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems Strategy and Economics.

Other job achievements are Cancer Research Laboratory Technician, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center – Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (1996-97).