Prosecution of Keroche Chairman at DPP’s discretion, court rules

The prosecution of Keroche Industries proprietor Joseph Muigai over Ksh 14 billion tax evasion charges lies at the discretion of the Director of Public Prosecution Nordin Haji.

Trial Magistrate Esther Kimeru on Wednesday said that the decision as to whether Muigai will be excluded from the criminal trial lies with the DPP.

The ruling by the Magistrate comes after Muigai’s lawyer Senator James Orengo told the court for the criminal case to proceed, it was important for Muigai to be excluded given his current medical state.

Muigai is currently admitted to the Karen Hospital.

The court has since directed the matter to be mentioned on June 14th.

The allegations against Tabitha Karanja and her husband Joseph Muigai relate to tax fraud on various products manufactured and sold by Keroche between January 2015 to June this year.

The two are the founders of the business that was established in August 1997 in Naivasha on the edge of the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.

An audit by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) established that Keroche Breweries Limited had evaded the payment of tax totalling Ksh 14,451,836,375.

KRA accuses Keroche of defaulting on agreed plans to clear the tax arrears, including a deal to pay half a billion shillings monthly from December to clear a Ksh 4.49 billion debt.