The Sh2.5B tax evasion case facing businesswoman Mary Wambui and her daughter Purity Mungai has been withdrawn.
The two are directors of Purma Holdings.
Anti-corruption magistrate Felix Kombo withdrew the matter after the DPP informed the court that Kenya Revenue Authority had reached an agreement with the accused persons.
KRA was the complainant in the case.
KRA in December last year requested the DPP to facilitate the withdrawal of the charges. The request was made through a letter dated December 21.
"Following successful compounding of offences on December 6, 2022, and subsequent payment of fines imposed, the authority now wishes to withdraw the matter pending before the court," read the letter.
Kombo in acquitting Wambui and her daughter directed the cash bail of Sh50 million they had deposited in court be released to them.
In the case, Purma Holdings Limited and its directors Wambui and Purity had been accused of knowingly and unlawfully omitting from the company’s income tax returns Sh2.5 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 of income 2014.
Eight witnesses had been lined up to testify in the case.
The DPP had been given one month to review KRA information pertaining to Wambui's tax evasion case.
The information was in line with the Sh2.5 billion tax evasion charges facing Wambui and her daughter.
Wambui through her counsel Nelson Havi said she was taken aback by the DPPs position as she expected the matter would have been withdrawn.
"KRA no longer has a problem with our client. We are wondering who is making the decision. It was not our client but KRA, who said they wanted to withdraw the charges," Havi said in court last month.
In early December 2022, President William Ruto appointed the businesswoman as the chairperson of the Board of Communications Authority of Kenya.
"In exercise of the powers conferred by section 6 (1) (a) of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, I, William Ruto, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya, appoint—Mary Wambui Mungai to be the Chairperson of the Board of Communications Authority of Kenya, for three (3) years, with effect from the 2nd December 2022. The appointment of Gilbert Kibe is revoked," a gazette notice by Ruto reads.
