A Nairobi court has frozen properties valued at Sh192 million belonging to a former supervisor at Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Jeremiah Kamau Kinyua is accused of acquiring those properties through corruption.
High Court Judge Esther Maina issued the orders prohibiting Kinyua from selling, transferring or disposing of the properties in Nairobi, Kiambu and Laikipia counties following a suit by the anti-graft commission claiming that the assets were acquired through fraud.
“The respondents and their agents or any other person working through them are hereby prohibited from transferring of dealing in any way with the listed properties to enable the commission complete investigations and institute another suit to recover the assets,” ruled the judge.
Justice Maina also prohibited Kinyua’s wife, Theresa Njeri, and their two companies Cherya Enterprises Limited and Bestline Enterprises Limited from disposing of a vehicle valued at Sh3.5 million.
The assets will remain frozen for a period of six months to give the anti-graft agency ample time to complete investigations and file the formal suit to recover the proceeds.
Kinyua’s affected properties include a vehicle, twelve parcels of land located in Ruiru, Kiambu County, five plots in Githunguri, Kiambu County, a piece of land in Laikipia, another plot in Nairobi all valued at Sh192 million.
According to Ethic and Anti-Corruption Commission, Kinyua acquired massive assets which were not proportional to his income hence raising alarm.
Kinyua worked with KRA for 15 years and apparently made at Sh120,000 per month while his wife took up farming.
“Our investigations found a huge disproportion between the value of Kinyua’s assets and his known legitimate source of income. We suspect that he engaged in corruption and economic crimes as a result of which he has unexplained assets totalling Sh192,020,582,” said EACC.
EACC’s lawyer Grace Maina told the court that for the seven years in question, Kinyua’s net salary and known sources of income totaled Sh11 million, an amount disproportionate to the accumulated wealth.
