Kenya Revenue Authority has launched an online portal to enable online registration of PIN (Personal Identification Number). Cyber café users should only pay for the usual cyber café fees.

You need to have the following information ready; ID Number, Date of birth, District of Birth, Mother’s Last Name, Father’s Last Name and your Year of Birth

Download a PDF guide for PIN registration

To register for the PIN go to www.kra.go.ke/portal/.

On your right navigation click Taxpayer registration, under E-registration Services.

Next page is written “Welcome to KRA Online services. Please enter your ‘User Id’ and ‘password’ to access to the system services.”

Click on the link New Taxpayer

Next page is written:

“KRA has some information from you that allows you get a PIN.” Resident ? Non Resident ? Company ?

Choose and click Validate

Next page; fill in the following; ID Number, Date of birth, District of Birth , Mother’s Last Name, Father’s Last Name and your Year of Birth. Note: For the Date of birth select day on the calendar, month (from the pull down menu) ; for year click the button with three dots. On the pull down menu 2009, and click on the sign until you get to the year you were born.

Review:

This service is a step in the right direction and should be met with praise. At the very least a shorter queue is expected at the Times Towers and this will save a lot of time for those applying for the PIN certificates.

The only barrier to this service is that the web developer overlooked usability of the service. This is very evident in that fact that visitors to the website have to ask for assistance from cyber café attendants. If web usability had been factored in the development process of the website then KRA Sessions with Cyber Cafes owners will not happen again, saving taxpayers money. And cyber cafe attendants will not, “have taken the liberty to introduce exorbitant charges relating to the services.”

Web usability according to Wikipedia is an approach to make web sites easy to use for an end-user without assistance. The goal here is, “Don’t make a visitor think!” The broad goal of usability can be:

Put the most important thing in the right place on a web page or a web application. To give the correct choices to the users, in a very obvious way. Present the information to the user in a clear and concise way.

Put most important thing in the right place: The url www.kra.go.ke/portal/ was advertised on radio local daily’s as a place where you register for you PIN. In this instance, Taxpayer registration is the main goal for visitors accessing the website.

A link to Taxpayer registration should therefore be obvious, prominent on the landing page. The link for Taxpayer registration is hidden on the right navigation in small text. A visitor to the website gets there after trying all the other links on the website.

Give the correct choices to the users in a very obvious way: Then the page that follows: the link for New Taxpayer is hidden by the text boxes for ‘Identification’ and ‘password’.

While filling the field for date of birth there is button to click to be able to input the day/month/year. The button is not obvious. It should have a call to action like click here.

I hope these pointers will help the designer make something that is easy to use. It will save the KRA time spend teaching the public how to use the online service and will prevent cyber café clients from paying for an otherwise free service.

For more information about this and other internet related information in Kenya please visit hawlast.com. hawlast.com is a provider of domain registration web design, and web hosting services in Kenya.



Before you launch your own website, domain name web page hosting is one of the most basic steps to consider. Choosing an available domain name is easier said than done though. But how do you go about this process to ensure that you have the best domain name before you buy one?

The Importance of Domain Name

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Each website domain name must be unique and it contains several parts. The “www” that you type in before the start of the actual website address is referred to as the sub-domain. Sometimes, it is no longer typed into the address bar and you can still access the website.

As for the domain name itself, it can consist of short or long words. But to make the most of your domain name and hosting, it must be able to give hints as to what to expect from the website content. The last part in a domain name is the ending, which typically consists of 4 to 5 letters. Some of the most common endings on the internet include.co,.info,.net,.gov, among others. If you do not have much idea on this matter, you may also ask an expert so you are assured that you can get the most of what type of service you want to pay for.

Guide to Domain Name Registration

Given the role that a domain name hosting plays to ensure that your website is accessible on the internet, you need to come up with a creative but easy to remember domain name to register. Sadly though, most catchy domain names are taken these days, especially with the number of sites running. Thus, you need to begin your registration by checking domain name availability.

Domain name web page hosting is a major industry these days, which is not surprising given the vast amount of personal or business websites available. In fact, domain name is nearly equal to a dollar sign. But there is a stiff level of competition out there since it is getting more difficult to register good and original domain names. Moreover, there is a wide range of service packages providers available on the market.

Dedicated Domain Registrar

Nowadays, you can find several domain registration companies that offer a wide range of service packages. Some offer mainly domain registration, others offer web hosting, while most offer both services. But domain registration often comes as part of a web hosting package, which website owners need to take advantage of.

But if you want to get the most of your domain name web page hosting fees, then it is best to opt for dedicated domain registrars. Thus, you can be assured of a separate storage space for your domain since service emphasizes on domain registration above anything else.



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As more big businesses see the Internet as the real estate of the 21st century, free domain name value is likely to continue to rise for the best names going. Unfortunately, pegging which names might fetch a tidy sum and which ones won’t is not always easy. Some people research ideas. Others go on gut instinct. Whatever the case, a free domain name can turn out to be worth a whole lot more than the service contract attached to the deal.