Two daughters disowned their mother in court in a Ksh2 billion tax evasion case. Jubilee Party billionaire and sponsor, Mary Mungai, was accused of tax fraud involving a military tender.
Everlyn Nyambura and Purity Njoki on Monday, July 5, obtained court orders to overturn an arrest warrant issued against them. This was the two failed to honour summons by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to explain their involvement in the case.
According to an affidavit filed in court, the daughters argued that their mother, Mungai, enrolled them as directors of Purma Holdings, the company accused of tax evasion. The firm was reported to be one of the major suppliers of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) uniforms.
"The second and third respondents (Nyambura and Njoki) had been put as minority shareholders and directors at the incorporation of the company by the first applicant (Wambui), their mother, without their consent, having been minors and in school," their attorney, Wakubengo Waningilo defended.
The duo added that KRA should pursue their mother who should face the consequences for her own mistakes as they were neither shareholders, customers, employees nor agents of the firm.
"That the 3rd Applicant [Nyambura] and I ceased being directors of Purma Holdings when on realising that the two of us had other interest for our respective careers in life, our mother removed us,” Njoki told the court that they resigned.
KRA believed that the two ladies had significant information that could solve the case and wanted to use them as key witnesses. The court directed the two to pay Ksh500,000 personal bond each and avail themselves before KRA before July 19.
The case will be mentioned on Wednesday, July 22.
KRA has escalated its investigations in a bid to identify billionaires accused of tax fraud. This was after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ordered President Uhuru Kenyatta to unmask tycoons who are awarded state tenders.
The condition was issued prior to the IMF issuing Kenya with a Ksh255 billion loan.
IMF Deputy Managing Director, Antoinette M. Sayeh, lauded Kenya for enhancing its governance agenda but was adamant that unravelling secret investors and shareholders was fundamental in the IMF-Kenya agreement.
She further urged the government to prosecute individuals found guilty in the Covid-19 Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) scandal.
