10 governors in tax evasion probe – Weekly Citizen

The identities of the 10 governors targeted for tax evasion and corruption which cost the economy over Sh250 billion can finally be revealed.
Already, the 10 county bosses have received demand letters from the Kenya Revenue Authority and other state agencies fighting corruption to explain the whereabouts of billions of shillings allocated to their counties by the national government.
Some of the county chiefs face personal tax bills as they own businesses generating millions of shillings annually, but they regularly file nil returns.

Wa Iria

Others have failed to file tax returns as required by the law, while a few are said to be living beyond their means.
According to highly placed sources, governors Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu), Charity Ngilu (Kitui), Ali Korane (Garissa), Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega), Josphat Nanok (Turkana), Mwangi wa Iria (Murang’a), Moses Kasaine Lenolkula (Samburu), Samuel Tunai (Narok) and Joseph ole Lenku (Kajiado) are likely to face tax evasion and corruption charges.
For Waititu, this will be the second time he will be in the dock having been arraigned in court together with his wife, Susan Wangari, on corruption charges.
The charges include engaging in fraud, conflict of interest, dealing with suspect property, money laundering and abuse of office.
Waititu has been ordered to stay away from office pending hearing and determination of the case.
The EACC has also completed investigations on the controversial multibillion shillings alcoholics rehabilitation programme called Kaa Sober that gobbled up over Sh1 billion.
Waititu will be charged alongside some county officials for embezzling the Kaa Sober funds and carrying out the exercise without the authority of the county assembly.
Other charges include theft of millions of shillings collected by the county government from parking, business licences and markets and failing to remit employees deductions to the statutory bodies.

Korane

The governor, according to sources, will also face an additional charge of falsifying tax returns.
Insiders say another governor on the spot is Ngilu, who faces multiple corruption allegations at her county government.
Besides falsifying her personal tax returns to exclude multimillion shillings income from the properties she has acquired since assuming the helm, Ngilu is also accused of raiding the county coffers to enrich herself.
Already, Kitui senator Enoch Wambua is under pressure from county leaders and residents to initiate the impeachment of Ngilu.
Wambua, a veteran journalist, recently clashed with Ngilu over who should be held accountable for a mysterious fire that razed the county’s finance offices.
Also on the radar of EACC and KRA is Korane, who is accused of giving all county contracts and tenders to his relatives.
Most of the tenders are awarded to Jihan Company owned by Korane and run by his family Korane is a former high ranking civil servant.
The governor has also not filed tax returns for Jihan which has put him on a collision course with KRA.
Another company, Akad is also a beneficiary of skewed and biased tender awarding.
After pocketing millions of shillings in cash, the said company has been returning nil as their tax returns.
The same level of nepotism is evident by employing his family members and relatives.

Nanok

Recently, the senate put Korane to task over the expenditure of Sh53.1 million through restricted tendering for the extension of the Kotile water supply to Alijarire and Hubi, the Hagalbul water supply, and sinking of the Dogob borehole.
Sources say the county hired 13 Prados from the governor’s brother, Mohamed Bunow, at a monthly fees of Sh600,000 each.
This amounts to Sh7.8 million per month, and Sh93.6 million per year.
The V8 guzzlers were acquired when Korane took over the leadership of the county, opening the lid to massive corruption in the county.
According to sources, the governor changed the number plates of the vehicles after realising that EACC was investigating the matter.
Korane, through his younger brother, has also been looting the county through a company by the name Marjan Investment Limited, which was awarded tenders. 

Akad Construction Company Limited, a firm that was awarded a contract in August last year to put up a state lodge for the governor in Bura, Fafi constituency, is also one of the conduits he uses to loot the county.
Information held by the Registrar of Companies indicates Korane had 250 shares in Akad Construction, similar to another shareholder, Mohamed Elias.
Sifa Imports Ltd, a company associated with a first-time MP in the county, owns 500 of the company’s total 1,000 shares.
Akad Construction, whose address is in an estate in Nairobi’s upscale Kilimani area, was registered on May 20 2013.
Akad Construction is among 14 firms that have done business with the Garissa county government over the years which KRA and EACC are investigating for various tax offences.

Ole Lenku

Cumulatively, the 14 companies are believed to have received more than Sh744 million from the Garissa county government since 2017, but their tax records have attracted the attention of investigators.
At the same time, KRA is demanding more than Sh1.2 billion from the Garissa county government in unpaid taxes.
“Records held in this office show that your county has not been remitting Withholding VAT (WHVAT), Withholding Income Tax (WHIT) and VAT on commercial rent contrary to Section 95 of the tax procedures Act, 2015,” reads a letter dated February 21 2019 from the taxman to the county’s secretary.
However, on May 3 2019, the county executive committee member for finance Roble Nuno objected to KRA’s figure, saying that the county only owes the taxman Sh101 million, which it said it would pay in three tranches: Sh50 million immediately from the county’s development account and the rest in two instalments at the end of May and June.
Also on the radar of EACC and KRA is Oparanya, who recently acquired a hotel worth Sh250 million in Kisumu.
An EACC report indicates Oparanya bought St John Manor Hotel “using public funds believed to have been embezzled from the county government of Kakamega and his firms don’t remit taxes”.

Ngilu

St John’s Manor Hotel is a three-star star facility located along Nerhu Road in Kisumu town.
On the EACC and KRA radar is Turkana’s Nanok, the governor of the most funded county since devolution but which has the most starving people seven years later.
Billions of shillings have been pumped in the county with a population of less than 600,000 people, yet there is very little to account for.
Recently, a Lodwar-based journalist attempting to expose Nanok’s underhand deals went into hiding a few days after his sources were abducted by the governor’s goons.
Already, Turkana MPs have petitioned EACC to investigate corruption allegations that have marred the Turkana county government.
Led by the group chairman who is the Turkana North MP Christopher Nakuleu, the MPs alleged that millions of money allocated for development in the county have been misappropriated through corrupt dealings by Nanok and county executives.
Most of the county executives have also bought lavish homes and land worth millions of money in major towns like Eldoret, Nakuru and Nairobi.
They have also compromised some of the EACC officials.
But Nanok dismissed the claims that he owns Hotel Comfort in Nairobi in Kilimani area near State House which he allegedly bought at Sh800 million.
Also on the EACC and KRA radar is Wa Iria, whose Murang’a county is deemed the most corrupt in Kenya.
Recently, Wa Iria was grilled at the EACC office in Nyeri over the controversial purchase of a 10-acre piece of land in Kabati at an inflated price of Sh390 million.

Oparanya

The interrogation lasted three hours, but it is not clear whether wa Iria is a suspect or witness in the ongoing investigation.
The 34-acre piece of land bought for Sh340 million has been at the centre of a controversy pitting the governor, the senate and EACC after former Senator Kembi Gitura accused the county of buying it at an inflated price.
An independent valuer claimed that the land’s value in 2014 was Sh190 million and not Sh340 million but the assembly’s lands committee, led by its chairman Gerald Wambugu, went ahead to direct the finance office to initiate the process of selling off land.
Samburu’s Lenolkulal, who was recently arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts and charged with four counts of corruption and abuse of office, is also on the radar of KRA and EACC.
The governor was accused of irregularly obtaining Sh84.7 million by supplying fuel to the Samburu county government through his fuel company, Oryx Service Station between March 27, 2013 and March 25, 2019.