KRA Seeks to Freeze Embattled Tycoon Mary Wambui’s 13 Bank Accounts

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has moved to court seeking to freeze 13 accounts linked to businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai, who is facing tax evasion charges.

The taxman accuses the tycoon and her daughter Purity Njoki, both directors of Purma Holdings Ltd, of evading paying tax amounting to Sh2.5 billion by failing to declare the correct taxes between 2014 and 2019.

KRA, in documents filed in court, says Wambui deals in supplies to government departments both in the country and region, but she failed to declare the correct tax in the six-year period.

Six of the targeted accounts are registered under Purma Holdings while the rest are in Wambui’s name.

The tax authority claims Wambui earned a total of Sh9.88 billion in the said period but the income was not reflected in the iTax ledger.

“I traced the payments to the bank accounts but the first interested party (Purma Holdings) and its directors being second and third interested parties never fully declared payments for both tax and VAT (value-added tax) purposes during the period under review,” an investigator at the KRA says in an affidavit.

Wambui and Njoki were last month charged with evading taxes amounting to Sh2.2 billion. They pleaded not guilty to seven counts of omitting tax returns alongside their company Purma Holdings and were released on a cash bail of Sh25 million each or an alternative bond of Sh50 million plus two sureties.

KRA had earlier issued an alert to seal border points and airports in a bid to block Wambui from leaving the country after she failed to appear in court to answer to tax evasion charges.

Last week, a Nairobi court allowed Wambui to travel to Turkey on February 24th for the purchase of furniture for a hotel she is putting up in Nairobi.

Wambui was a member of the Friends of Jubilee Foundation lobby that raised millions of shillings for President Kenyatta’s re-election campaign in 2017 in two hours.