Businesswoman Mary Wambui freed on Ksh.50M bond in Ksh.2.2B tax evasion case

Two Purma Holdings directors, Mary Wambui Mungai and her daughter Purity Njoki Mungai, were on Thursday released on a Ksh.50 million bond and a surety of Ksh. 25 million each after pleading not guilty to charges of alleged tax evasion amounting to Ksh.2.2 billion.

The two appeared before Anti-Corruption Court Judge Felix Mutinda, in the company of their lawyer Nelson Havi, to take plea for eight counts of unlawfully omitting taxes within the period between 2014 and 2016.

The pair is also accused of dismissing court summons that ordered them to appear before the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on December 3, 2021 to inform them of the charges against them. 

“On 8th December, the court declined to lift a warrant of arrest issued against the two directors on 6th December, 2021. The two directors through their lawyer had urged the court to lift the warrant because Ms. Mary Mungai was on bed rest on the advice of doctors at Kiambu Level Five Hospital and that Ms. Purity Mungai was her caregiver,” KRA said in a statement.  

KRA officers in conjunction with DCI sleuths unsuccessfully attempted to arrest the pair at a Nairobi hotel in which they were residing on December 8.

Despite finding some of the pair’s belongings in the hotel, the mother-daughter duo was nowhere to be seen.

Judge Mutinda has since asked the pair to hand over all their travelling documents to the court and not to travel without permission.

The judge further said that the department of immigration will be issued with a notice forbidding the suspects from travelling.

The court similarly instructed the pair to avail themselves before the KRA-DCI offices on December 14, 2021 for processing.

The case will be mentioned on January 16, 2022.