Former Kebs boss Charles Ongwae charged with fraud

Former Kenya Bureau of Standards boss Charles Ongwae has on Wednesday been charged with abuse of office and conspiracy to deny the government tax revenue.

Mr Ongwae was charged alongside 14 others with 31 counts over alleged tax evasion scheme that lost the government Sh64 million in revenue.

Among the charges Mr Ongwae faces are abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud the government by ""unlawfully authorising the waiver of penalty for import goods arriving into the country without Certificate of Conformity from the country of origin from 15 percent of the total custom value to 0.5 percent."

The prosecution contends that Mr Ongwae's alleged conspiracy led to loss of Sh4 million in tax revenue by illegally imposing 0.5 percent on import goods instead of 15 percent.

Mr Ongwae was arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot who freed him on Sh500,000 bond after he denied the charges.

The court ordered him to appear before the investigating officer at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on January 7, 2019 to record a statement.

The case will be mentioned on January 23 for pre-trial.

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