Court Freezes Sh48 Million Found in Accounts of a Nairobi County Official Earning Sh55,000

The High Court has ordered the freezing of Sh48 million held in the bank accounts of a Nairobi county government official whose monthly salary is Sh55,000.

Justice Esther Maina on Tuesday ordered the freezing of the funds belonging to Wilson Nashon Kanan to allow the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to complete investigations into claims that the county government employee received bribes and kickbacks through his office.

The court barred Kanani his agents and servants from withdrawing, transferring or in any other way dealing with funds held in various bank accounts.

Investigations by EACC revealed that Kanani received a total of Sh506.3 million, suspected to be proceeds of corruption, between January 2016 and October 2022 through bank accounts in his name using companies associated with him, his wife and his children, who are minors. 

“Although he earns a monthly net salary of Sh55,000/-, investigations have revealed that between January 2016 and October 2022, he received and channelled monies suspected to have been received through corruption amounting to Sh506,397,460.71/- through bank accounts in his name, the name of companies associated with him, his family members including his spouse and his minor children,” EACC said in court papers.

It was also established that he owns a house at Phenom Estate in Lang'ata, a residential house and rental property in Busia, an apartment in Lang'ata NHC estate, an apartment in Kahawa, and two high-end vehicles.

The anti-graft agency established Kanani's duties at the county include regulation of outdoor advertisements, monitoring and surveillance of all outdoor advertisements and calling advertisers to comply with approvals and payments for advertisements.

The five companies linked to him include Wilman Auto Invests, Wilman Auto Invests (Logistics), Willy Walla International Limited, Wilcoreg Limited and Regineez Enterprises Limited. 

“He is associated with five companies which are reasonably suspected to have traded with the Nairobi City County Government,” EACC said in court documents.