A border alert has been issued for Mary Wambui Mungai, a billionaire businesswoman who is wanted by the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Ms. Wambui is wanted over a Sh. 2.2 billion tax demand by the KRA.
According to a report that appeared in the Daily Nation on Tuesday, Ms. Wambui accumulated the taxes from multi-billion deals she did with the Jubilee government. These deals include tenders in agencies like the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and the military.
In the alert, the KRA has instructed that Ms. Wambui be prevented from exiting Kenya through all border points including the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. This is after she missed a court hearing in which she was expected to answer to charges of failing to remit taxes for the deals she took from the Jubilee government between 2014 and 2020.
Ms. Wambui is wanted together with her daughter Purity Njoki Mungai. Together, they operated a company known as Purma Holdings. The Nation reported that Ms. Wambui is a member of the Friends of Jubilee Foundation, a lobby which raised millions of shillings for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election campaign in 2017 in a record two hours.
“The taxman is pursuing Ms Mungai over alleged unpaid taxes for the billions of shillings earned from government tenders for supplying boots, uniforms and cereals to the military, among other State departments. The charges include the non-payment of Sh. 2.2 billion and failure to submit tax returns for 2018 and 2019,” the report said.
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The KRA told the court that Ms. Wambui had been summoned to appear before. However, her daughter sought a court order which barred police from arresting them for snubbing the taxman’s summons. She later sought a different date which was set on June 28. On this day though, she failed to appear and sent he lawyer who claimed that she was in Zambia for business. Another date was set for court appearance on December 3. Again, she failed to appear and sent her lawyer who said that she had been hospitalized.