Father, son in court for evading Sh100 million tax

A father and his son from Wajir County were yesterday charged in a Nyeri court with failure to pay taxes amounting to Sh100 million to the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Ahmed Muhumed Almi and Bishar Ahmed Muhumed appeared before Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Harrison Adika where they denied 15 counts of evading to pay taxes.

In the first seven counts, the two were charged that on diverse dates between January 20, 2015, and January, 2016, being directors of a limited company, and jointly with others not before court, they deliberately failed to pay Value Added Tax.

They further faced four other counts of knowingly not making a correct statement which affected liability of taxes.

Other counts

Almi and Muhumed faced additional four other counts of failure to submit tax returns.

The two, through their lawyer George Gori, denied the charge and applied to be released on reasonable bond terms.

The lawyer told the court that Almi was a senior citizen and therefore not a flight risk.

“His son similarly does business within the republic and has no intention of running away,” said Mr Gori.

The lawyer requested to be supplied with witness statements and any documentary evidence the prosecution intends to rely on in the case.

The magistrate direct the prosecution to furnish the defence with witness statement and all evidence intended for use in court.

He released the accused on a bond Sh1 million bond or an alternative cash bail of the same amount and a surety of similar amount.

He directed the case to be mentioned on July 18 and set a further mention on July 29 for fixing of hearing dates.