The former President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Nelson Havi is currently embroiled in what he promises to be a wounding war with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) over alleged tax evasion and which has also scandalized NCBA Bank.
Mr. Havi is accusing the bank which is liked to the former president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta for using the privilege to what he claims to be a witch-hunt.
“KRA is the most abused state agency. In April, 2022 Uhuru Kenyatta saddled me with a tax demand of Kshs 92M effectively designating me a billionaire. Our friends have found it fit to use it on me. As a billionaire, I will fight and win. It will be a precedent setting litigation.” He says in a statement.
Below are the statements and demands sent to the lawyer from KRA.
In an explosive affidavit filed by the lawyer in appealing the tax demand, he claims that the offivers in question revealed to him that he was a victim of state witch-hunting owing to his hard stance on president Uhuru’s administration.
“In the meeting of 10″ September, 2024 I put the two officers of the Respondent I met up with, Anthony Ongondi and Kathure Kamunde to disclose to me who was behind my tax woes. One of them, Anthony Ongondi told me that the investigations were commenced pursuant to an order from State House and that I should not blame them as they were only doing their work.” He states in the affidavit seen by Kenya Insights.
Havi further notes that his word didn’t stop with the reign of Uhuru who exited power in 2022. “I asked Anthony Ongondi why my woes continue despite President Uhuru Kenyatta having left office two years ago. He told me, “KRA is at the disposal of all Governments to deal with troublesome people and the current administration is not an exception.” I got the message, loud and clear.” He states.
Case against NCBA Bank
Mr. Havi has particularly taken case against Kenyatta’s owned NCBA Bank of privacy breach by allowing the state to use his client’s private information to fight what her terms a political war.
“Between 2020 to 2022 the Respondent abused the tax collection power at the behest of President Uhuru Kenyatta to unlawfully access my client account operated at NCBA Bank which Bank is associated with President Uhuru Kenyatta in the pursuit of interests unrelated to the collection of tax, but to curtail me in my practice as an Advocate, and in my capacity as President of the Law Society of Kenya from holding the Government of Uhuru Kenyatta accountable.” He states in a statement seen by Kenya Insights.
Mr. Havi further claims that despite complying with tax collector’s requirements, KRA denied him the Tax Compliance Certificate for 2020 under the instructions of President Uhuru.
“The Respondent refused to issue me with a Tax Compliance Certificate for 2020 in a nefarious enterprise set up by officers of the Respondent at the instance of President Uhuru Kenyatta. These are the officers involved in the tax investigations and demands to me. Their names appear in the emails and letters from the Respondent.”
In his affidavit, Mr. Havi claims he had complied to all tax returns and had been supplied with the compliance certificate before the 2020 debacle.
“The Respondent issued me with Tax Compliance Certificate for all years subsequent to 2021, a confirmation that I was not indebted to the Respondent on any outstanding tax. Exhibited at pages 19 to 21 of NAH-1 are Tax Compliance Certificates for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.” He says in his statement to argue his innocence.
Mr. Havi says the frustrations from KRA and particularly from deposits to his client’s accounts at NCBA Bank cost him many other jobs.
“In June, 2020 I applied for a Tax Compliance Certificate to enable me tender for the provision of legal services to several entities including but not limited to Safaricom Limited, Turkana County and Narok County who were my key corporate clients at all material times.”
Still, in his affidavit, Havi indicated that the monies the KRA have been running after were not income to attract any tax. Some of the funds were costs from court cases, others were purchases of properties, which cannot be taxed. He instanced receipt of monies from a client after representing them in an electoral petition in 2013; the monies were the costs of the case which ought not to have been taxed or charged VAT.
“The sum of KSh 1,000,000.00 received on March 3, 2017 from Gumbo and Associates are the costs awarded to the Petitioner in Election Petition No 4 of 2013, Esther Chege Waithera v IEBC and Others. It is not fees or any other income. Costs due to a party in litigation do not attract income tax or VAT chargeable on the Advocate,” read his document partly.
Mr. Havi at his time was a staunch critic of the BBI which was a spring project of Uhuru and Raila.
Havi said the BBI bill had sought to interfere with the independence of the Judiciary with installation of the Ombudsman to perform functions allocated to JSC.
“The culture of impunity in Kenya needs a fix tool. IEBC must do its job and Parliament do it and the court do its job, I plead to dismiss the four appeals and affirm the decision made by the High Court,” Havi said at the time.
NCBA and breach of privacy
The bank has recently been having a rough ride with authorities over breach of contract with customers.
NCBA Bank hawa recently ordered to pay United Kingdom based solicitor Sh250,000 for disclosing her data to a third party.
Data commissioner Immaculate Kassait slapped the lender with the fine as compensation to the Kenyan and UK-based solicitor Rose Wambui Muigai.
The ODPP noted that the lender failed to process personal data in accordance with the right to privacy resulting in unlawful and unauthorized disclosure of Muigai’s personal data.
Last week, one of the bank’s Manager’s Phillip Kiprono Rotich was detained at Kileleshwa Police Station for allegedly stealing millions of money from a Catholic Church Account domiciled at the Bank.
He was arraigned at Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi where the DCI, Banking Fraud Unit sought an order to detain him for 10 days to complete investigations and prefer charges.
The court heard that he was being investigated for various offences, including conspiracy to commit felony, forgery, uttering false document, stealing and possession of proceeds of Crime as reported by NCBA Bank of Kenya.
According to the Bank, Rotich used his position in the bank orchestrated a fraud by using advantage bestowed to him by the Bank’s clients and a fraud that led to the loss of over Ksh 47 million.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram