Two businessmen, Abdisalam Abdullahi Gedi and Yahye Elias Bare, were today arraigned in a Mombasa court and charged with failure to declare taxable income amounting to Kshs.740,129,552.

The Court heard that the two, being directors of Liban Trading Limited, jointly with others not before court, made an incorrect statements in the company’s income tax returns for the years of income 2013, 2014 and 2015. They were accused of unlawfully reducing the company’s tax liability by reporting their total sales for the three years as nil instead of Kshs.329,930,833, Kshs.146,281,440, Kshs.263,917,279 respectively.

They pleaded not guilty before Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Edna Nyaloti, and were released on a bond of Ksh10 million with an alternative cash bail of Ksh 3 million. A pre-trial was set for 19th November, 2019.

The court further granted the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) prosecutor, Moses Ado’s request to issue summons to the third accused director who was not present in court.

This arraignment in court of the two businessmen is part of KRA’s renewed war against tax evasion. The Authority has embarked on an aggressive tax compliance strategy to ensure all eligible taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes. KRA has implemented various initiatives targeting all Kenyans who fall in the taxpaying bracket to ensure they meet their tax obligations.

Liban Trading Company, a rice importation firm, has been under investigations on tax evasion for the period covering 2013 to 2018 for making sales but filing nil income tax returns.

Commissioner, Investigations and Enforcement-David Yego