The Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji has been granted more time to review Ksh 2.2 billion tax evasion charges against businesswoman Mary Wambui, a close ally of President William Ruto.
Milimani Anti-Corruption magistrate Felix Kombo on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, allowed the DPP's request to be given more time to review the charges of evading taxes before giving his directions on whether he will drop the same or not.
The new twist in the case emerged after the DPP, through Judy Thongori, informed the court that he has yet to finalize his decision against Wambui and her daughter Purity Njoki.
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As a consequence, the magistrate granted the DPP until December 5 to enable him to give his final decision on the matter.
The court heard that the review of the charges against Wambui and her daughter is based on a request by the accused persons through a letter dated September 14 to his office.
"Based on the request by the accused, our office did write to Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) on September 29 seeking their views regarding the matter. On October 6, we received a response from KRA where they indicated they were within engagements with the accused person who were taxpayers in reviewing the tax payable after the accused raised objection to the amount due."
"And therefore, it seems an out-of-court that is being considered in this regard. Upon receiving the response from KRA, we have not had time to seek directions from the DPP Haji on how to proceed with the matter considering this new development," Thongori.
However, Wambui and her daughter, through lawyers Nelson Havi and Adrian Kamotho, did not oppose the request by the DPP to be accorded more time until December 5.
In the case, Wambui and her daughter are charged alongside Purma Holdings with eight counts of knowingly and unlawfully omitting taxes due in the income tax returns submitted to the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes for the period between 2014 to 2016.
