Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki Loses Ksh2B Property as Police Stand Guard

African Spirits Limited Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki during a court proceeding in 2019.
African Spirits Limited Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki during a court proceeding in 2019.
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Embattled billionaire Humphrey Kariuki's case has taken a new twist after the businessman lost alcohol worth Ksh2 billion from his Thika plant as police stood guard at the facility which is still under investigations.  

The Standard report indicated that that the property, which disappeared mysteriously from his African Spirits plant, had been entered into his tax evasion case as evidence.

The police who had been tasked with securing the property claimed no knowledge of the disappearance, and neither did the billionaire.

Ethanol of unknown amount was also reported to have gone missing from the plant without a trace further complicating the Ksh41 tax evasion case the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had put up against him.

African Spirits Limited Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki (far right) together with his co-accused during a court proceeding in 2019.
African Spirits Limited Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki (far right) together with his co-accused during a court proceeding in 2019.
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DCI and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) was scheduled to present the evidence in an effort to pin down Kariuki and eight of his staff members.

The publication also indicated that Kiambu DCI boss Jeremiah Ikiao had been ordered to probe the mysterious disappearance of the property.

An additional troupe from the DCI and GSU was also deployed to secure the property as a multi-agency team resorted to visiting the plants daily for security assessment.

That was a departure from a previous requirement that security checks be carried out on a weekly basis.

The agencies noted that there were no break-ins but the alcohol was missing. Also puzzling was the fact that no reports to police were done after the incident.

Since his case kicked off in early 2019, the billionaire has had a series of wins and losses against the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The DCI had recovered fake Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) excise stamps and tens of thousands of contraband ethanol worth Kshs1.2 billion from a brewery located in Thika before they proceeded to slap him with charges relating to the sale of substandard alcohol.

In September 2019, DPP Haji solicited orders to freeze accounts belonging to Humphrey Kariuki but the court turned him down after the billionaire's lawyer Cecil Miller proved that other companies associated with Kariuki that had their accounts illegally frozen were never served with the order as required.

Kariuki was a little known tycoon with a multi-billion empire comprising a liquor business, Africa Spirits Limited, and Wines of the World before he was slapped with a total of 21 charges in three different files.

The charges alleged that he deliberately failed to pay taxes, falsified tax records, omitted VAT records, and concealed excise stamp duties between February 2016 to December 2018 leading to a tax loss of Ksh41 billion.

Before his case hit international headlines, Kariuki's star was in a steady rise especially after his firm Dalbit Petroleum won a lucrative Ksh797 million deal with United Nations (UN) to supply the organisation's jets with fuel.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters along Kiambu Road
Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters along Kiambu Road
Simon Kiragu
Kenyans.co.ke
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