Lugari MP Ayub Savula earned a total of Sh1 billion from contracts signed with various State agencies in five years through his company, Sunday Publishers Limited, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has revealed in court filings.
Mr Savula’s Sunday Publishers is said to have received the cash between 2013 and 2017 from government agencies among them the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the Nairobi County government, Migori County, Mombasa County and the National Land Commission.
The lucrative deals are now the subject of an ongoing tax evasion investigation by KRA and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
During the five-year period, Sunday Publishers which Mr Savula co-owns with his wife, Hellen Kemboi, filed nil tax returns, despite receiving huge sums of cash.
The investigations by KRA have seen the legislator slapped with Sh473.8 million tax arrears demand, which comprises interest and penalties.
But even as he continues to contest the tax assessment, the DCI has initiated parallel investigations into the deals prompting him and his wife to move to court seeking to bar their arrests and prosecution.
Mr Savula and his wife have asked the court to order “a declaration that the respondents impending and imminent arrest, detention and prosecution of the applicants amount to a gross violation of the petitioners’ fundamental rights and freedoms under the Constitution and under the relevant tax laws.”