The Accountant Nov-Dec 2016

PEN OFF
or financial, to carry out this task to a
satisfactory level of proficiency; and even
if it did, what purpose would this serve?
Council believes that an effort to update
Kenyan Standards will merely reproduce
International Standards under a different
name. In the circumstances therefore, the
resources available to ICPAK could be put
to better use if they were used to interpret
International Standards, to assess their
implication on local practice and, where
necessary, to issue technical bulletins and
local guidance on those Standards”.
Kenya adopted International Accounting
Standards in full with effect from 1
January 1999: in full, meant in full: for
all accounting periods commencing on or
after 1 January 1999, members of ICPAK
were required to prepare the accounts of
companies (whether quoted, public or
private), parastatals and organizations such
as co-operative societies, partnerships, sole
traders, non-trading concerns such as
sports clubs and charities, and estates and
trusts in accordance with IFRSs. The 27
countries of the EU, and Australia, adopted
IFRSs with effect from 1st January 2005:
the Big 4 firms in Nairobi lost many
of their audit staff to countries which
adopted IFRSs after Kenya did, because
of the Kenyans experience in dealing with
IFRS issues: KPMG lost seventeen staff in
August 2004.
The IFRS for SMEs did not exist in
those days: it is important to point out
compliance with the IFRS for SMEs
ensures compliance with IFRSs.
The East African Community, the
EAC, is made up of Burundi, Kenya,
Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and
Uganda; South Sudan joined the EAC
on Friday, April 15, 2016. The first
customs union between any of the present
members dates back to 1917, and it was
between Kenya and Uganda; Tanganyika
joined this union in 1927. To place these
dates in the history of the region, it is
important to know that the first building
that was erected in what is now Nairobi
occurred in 1899 and the first motor car
that was driven from Mombasa to Nairobi
made the trip in 1927. The East African
High Commission functioned between
1948 and 1961, followed by the East
African Common Services Organisation
until 1967 and the first East African
Community from 1967 to 1977. Brexit is
the talk of the day today; some Texans in
the US are even talking about a possible
Texit: well the EAC had its Taxit in 1977,
when Tanzania principally, called an
end to the first EAC. African Socialism
as Mwalimu (the teacher) Nyerere in
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