KENYA REVENUE AUTHORITY & ANOR V. LYDIA WANJIRU MUTAMBA & 26 OTHERS

JUDGMENT

1. This appeal before us principally turns on the question whether the respondents were denied their right to be heard by the appellants before they were issued with forfeiture notices in respect of outstanding taxes involving their respective motor vehicles.

2. A precis of the facts leading to the appeal is that the first appellant, after conducting post import investigations to establish whether import duty had been properly paid and accounted for in respect of a number of motor vehicles, realized that import duty for a number of them had been mis- declared; for some the import duty had not been fully paid; and for others duty had not been paid at all. The motor vehicles in question included registration numbers KBC 746M, KBB 494T, KBB 793F, KAW 776H, KAT 644J, KAZ 108S, KBB 181T, KAU 280Z, KAT 953U, KAV 673A, KAX 659N, KAU 283D, KAY 374K, KBB 852X, KAY 020Q, KBB 192T, KBA 164G, KBB 552A, KBB 559A, KBC 065D, KAZ 147Z, KAZ 183B, KBC 137G, KBB 419M, KBA 813A, KBA 546Z, KAY 280G, KAY …