Trader Wambui may flee if allowed to travel – DCI

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations is concerned that businesswoman Mary Wambui may not return to Kenya if the court releases her passport to enable her to travel to Turkey for business.

Francis Barasa, an officer attached to DCI, says Wambui has vast business interest abroad and is capable of living a comfortable life abroad.

The office is apprehensive that she may decide to shift her focus from Kenya and conduct her business from abroad thereby causing a delay in the Sh2.2 billion tax evasion case.

In the case, Purma Holdings Limited and its directors Mary Wambui Mungai and Purity Mungai are accused of knowingly and unlawfully omitting from the company’s income tax returns of Sh2.2 billion. The said monies according to the charge sheet, should have been included in the income tax returns submitted to the commissioner for the year  2014. They denied the charges and were released on bail.

One of the conditions set by the court was that Wambui deposits all her travel documents in court. She was also prohibited from travelling outside the territory of Kenya without prior permission of the court. In compliance with the terms, Wambui deposited her Kenyan passport in court to secure her release.

She has now filed an application through her lawyer Nelson Havi to have her passport released so that she can travel to Turkey for business and the same be deposited back in court upon her return. Magistrate Felix Kombo will rule on the issue on Wednesday.

Wambui is required to travel to Turkey for pre-inspection and approval of furniture prototypes in satisfaction of the terms of a contract for manufacture and supply of hotel furniture between Glee Hotel Limited, a company in which she is the principal director and shareholder and Sagist group, a hotel furniture factory in Istanbul, Turkey.

The pre-inspection and approval exercise in Turkey is at the heart of the contract between Glee Hotel Limited and Sagist Group and critical to the performance of the contractual obligations for the manufacture and supply of hotel furniture required by Glee Hotel for its hotel under construction in Nairobi, Kenya.

But the DCI says it has established from records maintained by the Registrar of Companies that Glee Hotel Limited has two other directors with substantial shareholding.

“Wambui has not established the inadequacy of one director who has not been charged before this court to conduct the business of the company and she cannot therefore purport to be the only one capable of effecting the terms of the contract between the company and Sagist Group supplier.”

The DCI officer says besides delegating the duties to a co-director, Wambui can employ the services of an expert to physically conduct the pre-inspection and approval exercise on her behalf.

The said contract between Glee Hotel Limited and Sagist Group Supplier was executed in November 2020 without Wambui’s physical presence in the said country as the same was the case during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic which led to travel bans.

According to an affidavit by Barasa, Wambui has failed to disclose her intended date of return should the application be allowed. “In fact the inspection dates included in the invitation letter have been overtaken by events and no new invitation schedule has been availed.”

The DCI says failure by Wambui to disclose the intended date of return puts the prosecution case and the court at the mercy of Wambui.

Barasa was involved in the investigations giving rise to the charges against Purma Holdings Limited and its directors. During the investigations, it was established that between 2014 and 2019 the company had omitted from its income tax returns an income of Sh4.5 billion thereby resulting in a tax liability of Sh2.2 billion.

Besides Purma, investigations further revealed that Wambui is a director and beneficial owner of seven other companies that defaulted in their respective tax obligations between 2014 and 2019 and were served with tax investigations findings for a total tax liability of Sh806 million.

“The tax implication flowing from Purma Holdings Limited and the related companies is quite enormous and we are apprehensive that Wambui may flee to avoid recovery of the established taxes or the likelihood of further charges being instituted against her in relation to the aforesaid companies on tax evasion."

-Edited by SKanyara