• Arrest followed the conclusion of investigations on tax evasion.
• Anti-graft agency says the two to be arraigned Tuesday after processing.
Image: FILE
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday arrested a former top KRA manager for allegedly evading tax amounting to Sh38.7 million.
The anti-graft agency has also been investigating Joseph Gikonyo over unexplained wealth and assets of about Sh600 million in five years.
CEO Twalib Mbarak in a statement said the commission has been probing the former KRA official alongside his wife Lucy Kangai and their company trading as Giche Limited.
The probe revealed that the officer – who is the director of Giche Limited, and his wife – accumulated the unexplained assets between 2010 and 2015.
“A civil suit was filed at the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Division of the High Court for forfeiture of the assets,” the statement reads.
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji granted EACC consent to first prosecute the two on the tax evasion charge.
They will be charged with contravening taxation laws as well as violation of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
“The suspects will be arraigned today to take plea,” Twalib said in the statement to the press.
The KRA manager’s arrest came barely days after the EACC successfully prosecuted Sirisia MP John Waluke over a Sh300 million fraud at the National Cereals and Produce Board.
The lawmaker and his co-accused Grace Wakhungu were handed 67 years and 69 years in jail respectively. The agency warned of more high-profile convictions.
Waluke’s case came in the wake of the state bolstering the anti-graft fight with a proposal which technically spares only a sitting president from prosecution for graft.
The government has put before Parliament a proposal which would require all state officers charged with graft to vacate office for at least two years.
The amendments to ACECA are contained in the Statutes Law (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which is at the committee stage.
EACC has restated that it will not relent in the fight against corruption and unethical conduct, more so by public and state officers.
“A clear demonstration of this is where we have arrested state and public officers irrespective of the positions they hold,” Dr Dabar Maalim said.
In his address to a virtual training of Corruption Prevention Committees of the University of Nairobi, the commissioner asked public officers to adhere to the law governing their work.
“The war against corruption must start from the top and be extended and felt at all levels of our society,” he said.
“The values enshrined in Chapter Six of the Constitution should be inculcated in the minds and demonstrated in the actions and behaviour of all staff.”
Edited by R.Wamochie