•A host of dignitaries from Garissa were at the same facility for a fundraiser.
•Police cordoned off the hotel as a search on the two is intensified in vain.
Image: COURTESY
Wanted businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai, who is at the centre of a Sh2.2 billion tax evasion case on Wednesday night escaped a police dragnet at Weston Hotel, Nairobi where she has been residing.
There was drama at the hotel when police raided there in search of the woman and her co-accused only to realise she had left minutes earlier leaving their personal belongings.
A host of dignitaries from Garissa were at the same facility for a fundraiser.
The Deputy President William Ruto was among those present.
It is not clear if the DP was informed about the drama as police searched for the two on strength of a warrant they had.
Kenya Revenue Authority in a statement said Wambui, alongside Purity Njoki Mungai, who are both directors of Purma Holdings Limited, escaped from their hotel rooms a few minutes before the police and KRA officers arrived to arrest them.
Image: CYRUS OMBATI
“Upon searching the hotel premises, KRA officers and the police found personal belongings of the two including cash, bank cards and car keys, a clear indication that the two were residing at the hotel,” KRA said.
It is claimed they used a connecting door from their room on third floor to escape to the next room making it difficult for the officers to pursue them further.
Police cordoned off the hotel as a search on the two is intensified in vain.
The guests who had been at the hotel drove out.
The taxman is pursuing 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 taxman says Mungai and her two daughters earned billions of shillings between 2014 and 2019 through their company Purma Holdings Ltd.
The KRA says it has been conducting investigations on tax obligations by the company for the past two years.
They are to be charged with at least seven charges.
If found guilty for the offence of omission, the penalty is a fine not exceeding Sh10 million or double the tax evaded whichever is higher or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or both.
For the offences of submit a tax return and failure to pay tax, the penalty is a fine not exceeding Sh1 million and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.