Kenya Revenue Authority former Manager Joseph Chege Gikonyo has been arrested over Ksh600 million unexplained wealth.
Mr Gikonyo has been under investigation since 2018 by the Ethics and Ant-corruption Commission, which obtained court orders to freeze his wealth estimated to be Ksh650 million by then.
Mr Gikonyo was arrested on Monday alongside his wife Lucy Kangai Stephen, with whom they are co-directors of a company named Giche Limited.
“They fraudulently failed to pay Ksh38,692,694 taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority,” authority CEO Twalib Mubarak said.
According to EACC, the two accumulated assets amounting to Ksh597 million between 2010 and 2015, through Giche Limited.
At that time, Gikonyo was earning Ksh119,000, before he suddenly became a millionaire. When the anti-graft agency started investigating his source of wealth, KRA interdicted him on October 31, 2016.
Among the properties under his name include two plots in Nyali, Mombasa County, valued at Ksh125 million, two parcels of land in Shanzu, also in Mombasa, valued at Ksh26 million and a posh farm house in Kilifi town valued at Ksh27 million.
Gikonyo also owns a Ksh40 million house in Mombasa town, land in Kwale valued at Ksh2.5 million and another plot in Mtwapa valued at Ksh2 million.
In Nairobi, he has 13 plots in Sosian estate valued at Ksh75 million, several flats in Umoja estate valued at Ksh33.5 million, a house at Greenspan estate valued at Ksh12 million and a Ksh9 million house in Vescon estate.
Gikonyo started as a junior employee of KRA in 1998, as a junior tax collector at Oloitokitok earning a basic salary of Ksh24,369.
By the time he was axed, he was a manager in Eldoret with a net pay of Ksh119,617.
