KRA Seals Airports in Pursuit of Billionaire Jubilee Party Financier Mary Wambui

Officers from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) are in hot pursuit of Mary Wambui Mungai, a Jubilee Party financier wanted for tax evasion.

Business Daily reports that KRA has issued an alert to seal border points and airports in a bid to block Wambui from leaving the country after she failed to appear in court to answer to tax evasion charges.

The businesswoman failed to honor summons by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in June claiming she was in Zambia on a business trip. She also failed to appear before KRA for the second time on December 3rd, with the tax authority suspecting that she is planning to flee the country.

On Monday, her attorney told anti-corruption court chief magistrate Felix Kombo that Wambui has been in hospital since November 29th but he did not provide any medical records to support the claim. The magistrate dismissed Wambui's application to delay plea taking for at least 10 days and issued a warrant for her arrest.

Wambui and her daughter Purity Njoki Mungai are facing multiple counts of evading taxes through a company known as Purma Holdings, where both are directors.

They are accused of failing to file income tax returns amounting to Sh2.2 billion between 2014 and 2020 after landing lucrative tenders at various government agencies, among them Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) and the military.

Through Purma Holdings, Wambui and her daughter are said to have earned billions of shillings from government tenders for supplying boots, uniforms and cereals to the military between 2014 and 2019.

Wambui was a member of the Friends of Jubilee Foundation lobby which raised millions of shillings for President Kenyatta’s re-election campaign in 2017 in two hours. She is also said to be a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto.