A Mombasa businessman Maur Abdhalla Bwanamaka, who was last week Tuesday found guilty of evading Sh13 million tax, has been sentenced to one year in prison by a Mombasa court.
However, Bwanamaka was given an alternative of paying Sh500,000 to secure his release.
Bwanamaka and two other accused were found guilty of falsely declaring cargo imported through the Old Port, Mombasa.
According to court documents, Bwanamaka, who was a director at Federal Investment Commercial Limited, on October 28, 2019 imported rice and scrap metal, but falsely under-declared its value to evade paying actual tax.
He was charged together with Ali Mohamed Ahmed, a director at Captain Shipping Agency Limited and Abdulla Hussein Mer the captain of a MV AL Fazal, the vessel that imported the cargo.
The three accused made a false report to cargo on board Al Fazal, declaring that they had imported 1,000 bags of 25kg rice and 10 tonnes of scrap metal.
However, the actual number of the imported bags of rice was 15,045 and 16 tonnes of scrap metal. The whole consignment was valued at Sh22,532,619 with a tax implication of 13,142,066.
Mombasa Chief magistrate Edna Nyaloti also ordered Bwanamaka’s co-accused Ahmed to pay Sh1 million fine and Mer to pay Sh500,000 or serve a one year jail term each.
Additionally, Nyaloti ordered the Federal Investment and Commercial Limited to pay the outstanding tax of Sh9,645,163 owed to Kenya Revenue Authority.
The accused had initially paid a tax of Sh3, 812,653 for 3,500 bags of rice and a second payment of Sh77, 406 for the 10,000 tonnes of scrap metal.
In her judgment, Nyaloti also ordered a formation of a multi-agency team to oversee the destruction of the 15,045 bags of rice, which are still being held at the Old Port and have since been declared unfit for human consumption by Kenya Bureau of Standards.
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
