Court Freezes Assets and Bank Accounts of Gov't Official Who Bought 35 Apartments in Three Months
The High Court has frozen the assets and bank accounts belonging to Margaret Wanja Muthui, a senior official at Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA).
The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) successfully applied to have the properties frozen on grounds that they are proceeds of crime.
On Tuesday, Justice James Wakiaga issued orders freezing Sh93.4 million in three accounts linked to Wanja, the Deputy Director of Supply Chain Management at KERRA.
She is alleged to have used Esther Wagio Njunge, Lighthouse Trading Company, Grace Ndiritu, Mercy Nyambura, and Cynthia Nyambura to launder millions of shillings.
Investigations by ARA revealed that she used the funds to acquire a total of 35 apartments in Ruaka and Nairobi.
Judge Wakiaga also prohibited Wanja and her accomplices from selling, transferring, charging, or dealing in any manner with two properties in Ruaka, a house at Collingham Gardens in Nairobi and land in Riruta.
They were further barred from collecting any rental income from the property in question instead, the rent should be deposited in the ARA bank account pending hearing and determination of the forfeiture case.
Properties whose tenants are required to send rent to ARA include 11 apartments in Kileleshwa and 24 apartments at Taraji Residence apartments in Ruaka.
The court also ordered the Chief Land Registrar to register caveats against each of the apartments and properties stated in the case.
Wanja and her accomplices were directed to surrender to ARA the original land titles documents, leases, or registration documents for the contested properties within the next seven days.
ARA told the court that investigations revealed that the three bank accounts received suspicious funds through a scheme of money laundering.
Investigations established that Wanja paid Sh264,500,000 in cash for 11 apartments in Kileleshwa and were registered in her accomplices’ names to conceal ownership.
She is alleged to have bought the apartments within three months during the demonetization period in 2019 to launder the illegitimately obtained cash.
ARA said that on April 13th, 2015, Wanja transferred through RTGS suspicious funds totaling Sh39 million from her account in Cooperative Bank to Esther’s account in Equity Bank.
On July 26th, 2017, Sh49,857,670 was deposited in a fixed deposit account and accumulated interest to Sh68,600,000 which was also deposited in a fixed deposit account on April 16th, 2021 for 12 months. The Sh68.6 million whose maturity date is April 16th, 2022 is expected to earn an interest of Sh6,174,000.
Wanja is said to have paid for each of the apartments in cash but did not register any of them in her name.
ARA raised the red flag that the apartments worth Sh374.5 million and Sh94 million in bank accounts linked to Wanja are products of illicit deals, including kickbacks from road contractors.