A multi-agency unit was deployed to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and all border points to track down a wanted billionaire accused of plotting to flee the country.
The team was tasked with heightening security at the checkpoints after a court issued a warrant of arrest against Jubilee businesswoman, Mary Wambui Mungai.
Wambui was accused of contempt of court after failing to honour court summons in a Ksh2.2 billion tax evasion case. Her daughter, Purity Njoki Mungai, also failed to appear in court to take a plea in the case.
The two were marked as fugitives with a multi-agency team deployed to track them down, minutes after Chief Magistrate Felix Mutinda Kombo, ordered the police to apprehend the duo and avail them in court.
Officers attached to the case were ordered to cross-check tickets, passports of all departures, and vehicles exiting the court following the alert.
The billionaire was said to be well connected within the country as seen by the state tenders and contracts won in the past. Some of these include procuring supplies for the military and the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA).
Her cases have dragged in court since 2014 when she was accused of tax fraud. Efforts to arraign her have backfired after she failed to take a plea a number of times.
Wambui, in June 2021, alleged that she was in Southern Africa, conducting business after she was asked to appear before the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road.
Appearing in court on her behalf, on Monday, December 6, her lawyer argued that she was admitted to a hospital after falling ill.
The attorney, however, failed to produce relevant documents to substantiate his claim.
In July 2021, her two daughters, Njoki and Everlyn Nyambura, distanced themselves from their mother, accusing her of enrolling them as directors in her company that was accused of tax evasion
"The second and third respondents (Nyambura and Njoki) had been included 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, argued.
