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Plenty of attention has been paid to tax evasion and avoidance by companies operating in sub-Saharan Africa, very little, has been paid to the other side of the equation – the waste of taxes by government. In Kenya’s 2011/12 fiscal year, for example, government officials couldn’t explain how over $ 3 B had been spent. In a situation like that therefore, isn’t tax avoidance a legitimate move to limit the wastage of capital by states? Irungu Houghton explains.