City billionaire and Purma Holdings, Mary Wambui Mungai, can now heave a sigh of relief after an Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi allowed her to travel to Turkey.
The Court made the decision on Wednesday, January 26, after Mungai, who is allied to Deputy President William Ruto, filed an application requesting to be allowed to travel for business purposes.
Chief Magistrate Felix Kombo, granted the businesswoman her prayers but under one condition-that she provides a surety.
In legal terms, a surety is a person who undertakes to ensure that an accused person will appear in court and abide by bail terms and conditions.
On January 24, the Purma Holdings Director, filed an application seeking orders to allow her to travel for business purposes. She added that if she staged a no-show, she would incur hefty business losses.
“I am required to travel to Turkey for a pre-inspection and approval of furniture prototypes in satisfaction of the terms of a contract for manufacture and supply of hotel furniture between Glee Hotel ltd, a company in which I am the principal director and shareholder and Sagist Group, a hotel furniture factory in Istanbul, Turkey," read the affidavit presented before the court.
The order will see the businesswoman get back her passport, which she had surrendered to the state following her arraignment in court.
However, the prosecution did not welcome the Chief Magistrate Kombo's directive, arguing that Mungai was a flight risk.
On December 7, a multi-agency team was dispatched to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to track down Mungai and her daughter, who were considered fugitives.
The pair was accused of contempt of court after failing to honour court summons and failing to appear in court to take a plea in a Ksh2.2 billion tax evasion case.
Detectives had tracked the two to Weston Hotel, which is owned by the Deputy President. However, the would beat the police dragnet only to surrender a few hours later.
The city billionaire who has had run-ins with the law spent a night in police custody on January 5, for being in possession of a firearm without a valid certificate. She was released the following day on a Ksh50,00 cash bail or Ksh100,000 bond .
