This archive report was first published on 28 August 2019.
On August 23, 2019, Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja and her husband Joseph Karanja were released on Ksh. 10million and Ksh. 2million bail respectively after pleading not guilty to charges of tax evasion.
However, in a full-page advertisement published in the Daily Nation and The Star newspapers on August 28, 2019, Mrs. Karanja described her arrest and arraignment as 'humiliating' and a 'messy occurrence.'
She alleged that she, her family, and staff had been subjected to 'psychological and physical abuse' during the arrest.
“By 4pm it was a pariah organisation barricaded by tens of security officials, its directors being hunted like criminals,” the advertisement reads.
According to Mrs. Karanja, the new Commissioner General at the Kenya Revenue Authority should take up his role with caution, as the incident undermined her company and further maintained that there had been no tax evasion claims before August 21, 2019.
This is despite a statement from the Prosecutor during the arraignment of the two Keroche directors that they had been summoned by the taxman.
However, in her message in the Wednesday newspaper, Mrs. Karanja maintained that the Director of Public Prosecution had been presented with 'inaccurate information.'
She urged the DPP to conduct proper investigations and avoid 'manhandling and humiliating the Keroche Chairman and CEO.'
