Keroche breweries chief executive officer (CEO) Tabitha Karanja called out the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over frustrations in the Ksh14.1 billion tax dispute.
In a statement released on Sunday, February 5, Karanja, who is also Nakuru Senator, explained how her business was struggling due to false accusations and resurfacing of a case that was pending before the court.
The Senator detailed that she had been summoned to appear before in court concerning the same matter on Monday, February 6.
“We got the letter yesterday (Saturday) from the DPP through our lawyer that the CEO, the chairman and Keroche breweries are required to appear in court tomorrow (Monday) for a mention of the same case. We read malice and this raises a lot of questions.
Our worry is why now? The timing is wrong because we are in negotiations to revive Keroche breweries with financial institutions which are likely to be jeopardized,” she questioned.
She added that the letter came after a similar news piece was aired by a section of the media.
“To our surprise on Thursday, February 2, we saw some news in the Mediamax; People’s Daily, K24 and Kameme on the alleged approval of the filing of charges relating to tax fraud against the CEO, the chairman and the company Keroche breweries ltd on the matter pending before the court.
The management refuted the claims because we had not received any communication on the same and there is no way fresh charges can be leveled against us when the matter is pending before the court,” she noted.
On November 2022, the company was informed by the taxman that the case would no longer go on due to lack of evidence but the withdrawal process faced resistance, according to Karanja.
“On January 11, the CEO sought an explanation but the taxman stated that he would not go the way of withdrawing the case as proposed by the head of legal and DPP but wanted the case to go through the Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process which I accepted,” she uttered.
Karanja added that the company was going to an early grave as the case had made it difficult to receive financial assistance from banks. She noted that if the frustrations continued, the company would have no future hence calling for support from president William Ruto on having the taxing process conducted fairly.
“If these blocks are not sorted, the future of this company is not guaranteed. We highly condemn the actions by DPP to continually frustrate Keroche with fake claims. Let all support the president on his call to increase the tax bracket and collection but we cannot achieve that if we continue frustrating the existing taxpayers and putting state captures,” she added.
Tax has become Ruto's agenda, rallying all Kenyans to pay taxes. In the process, he has caused political shock waves after going after the Kenyatta family.
In a close rejoinder, Former First Lady Mama Ngina denied claims of not honoring her tax obligations.
