Kenya: Court Freezes Sh537 Million Wealth of City Hall Procurement Official Earning Sh21,000
Nairobi — The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has obtained orders from the High Court to freeze Sh537 million unexplained wealth belonging to an employee of the Nairobi City County government.
Michael Auka Ajwang works as a junior Procurement Officer at the County Government.
Investigations show that Ajwang managed to accumulate this substantial wealth between January 2014 and June 2022, despite earning a mere net monthly salary of Ksh 21,000.
During the period under scrutiny, Ajwang’s known legitimate income amounted to Sh2.1 million only.
However, investigations conducted by the EACC revealed that he possesses nine rental properties, including a 3-star hotel situated on Kisumu-Bondo Road, as well as ten high-end motor vehicles, all of which have now been frozen.
The EACC argues that these assets are likely the proceeds of corruption and economic crime.
Some of the assets have been traced back to Ajwang’s wife and his associate companies.
The case started in August 2022 when EACC received a report that Ajwang’s accumulated wealth and living standards were not proportional to his known sources of income.
Upon preliminary investigations into the allegations, the Commission, reasonably, suspected Mr Ajwang of grand corruption and obtained temporary injunction orders from the High Court preserving the assets to allow investigations. The orders were issued by Justice Maina on 24th August 2022.
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Upon completion of investigations, the Commission established that Michael Auka Ajwang was in possession of unexplained wealth, including 9 landed properties and 10 high-end motor vehicles valued at Kes.537 Million.
Investigations further established that during the period of interest, Ajwang routinely received huge amounts of money in his bank accounts from several companies awarded tenders by Nairobi City County Government.
Consequently, the Commission issued a statutory notice to Ajwang requiring him to account for the disparity between his wealth and his known legitimate source of income, which he was unable to do.
Despite a demand issued by EACC requiring Mr Ajwang to forfeit and surrender the unexplained assets to the Government, he has failed, ignored and/ or refused to do so prompting EACC to file forfeiture proceedings in court on Monday, May 22 May.
Filed together with the recovery suit was an Application under a Certificate of Urgency seeking to freeze the assets until the case is fully heard and determined.
In granting the orders sought by EACC to preserve the assets throughout the pendency of the recovery case, Justice Esther Maina on May 23 2023 ordered a temporary injunction restraining the Defendants/Respondents by themselves, their servants, agents or any other person from transferring, and/or disposing of properties in question pending the hearing and determination of the suit.
