This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
August 21, 2019, marked a significant day for Keroche Kenya, the country's premier indigenous-owned brewer. The company, known for rattling multinationals that milk the economy dry and send profits overseas, found itself under siege. The Jubilee regime, struggling with Chinese loans and wanton spending, appears to be cash-strapped and willing to auction off Kenyan-owned firms, including Keroche, under the guise of tax evasion.
Allegations of tax evasion against Keroche have sparked a public outcry, with many questioning the government's motives. If indeed Keroche evaded taxes on a grand scale, where are the co-conspirators within government? Someone or people very senior must have looked the other way if this was possible.
It is preposterous to believe some of these allegations, and Kenyans are not going to be taken for fools anymore. The minister of finance who oversaw this rot, if indeed it happened, and the heads of department as well as the overall head of the KRA should be arraigned alongside Tabitha Karanja, the CEO of Keroche. Such a scam, if possible, would have had to be executed from Times Tower and Treasury, not from the Keroche plant.
The government should find sustainable ways of paying off their debt obligations, rather than engaging in hare-brained schemes. Let indigenous Kenyan entrepreneurs take on multinationals and level the playing field, not tilt it in favor of those who have never had our nation's interests at heart.
If the DPP is serious about fighting corruption and tax evasion cases by real culprits, why are the Indians who collapsed Nakumatt under similar schemes not been arrested so far? It would also be interesting to find out why Africa businesses and buildings deemed to be on road reserves are brought down, while the Hindu Temple, clearly on a road reserve, still stands.
There has been a public outcry about river pollution perpetrated by Indian companies in Western Kenya, and nothing has been done. Is it because they are better payers of bribes to government operators? It is in the public domain that Mohan Galot is the biggest tax evader with his London distillers, and nothing is yet to happen to him.
