Court stops probe of trader in Sh355m tax evasion claim

The High Court has blocked the police and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from conducting further investigations on a businessman who is battling charges of evading Sh355 million taxes.

Justice James Makau also prohibited the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from commencing any further investigations against the businessman, Denis Joseph Shijenje and his trading firm Bachman Enterprises Limited, in respect to issues relating to the criminal case.

The trader and his company were in November 2018 arraigned in court and charged with deliberately defaulting to pay tax.

KRA instituted the criminal case after conducting an audit in October 2018 to establish if there was any tax due and payable.

Upon conclusion of the audit, it became apparent that Bachman had evaded payment of taxes through under-declared taxes resulting to a loss of income tax amounting to Sh355 million. However, in March 2019 KRA issued him a further demand. He said the KRA demanded for books, records, documents, payrolls, income statements “respecting the same period under trial, the same tax head under trial, the same parties and the same tax issues.”