SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9 2018
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Executive Officer Halakhe Waqo. EACC sources indicate that most corruption occurs in lower cadres of the Civil Service and devolved units. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has secured orders to investigate wealth amounting to Sh1 billion belonging to three mid-level government officials.
EACC sources indicate that most corruption occurs in lower cadres of the Civil Service and devolved units. It is these officers that the commission's officers are concentrating on.
The court documents indicate that a Kenya Revenue Authority employee, currently at Customs and Services department, Mr Joseph Chege Gikonyo, has unexplained assets worth Sh615,457,057, which EACC seeks to be forfeited to the government.
The High Court has already issued orders restraining Mr Gikonyo from transferring the accounts.
A former Nairobi County government official, Mr Stephen Osiro, earning a net monthly salary of roughly Sh90,000, amassed a Sh340 million fortune in just five years.
KICKBACKS
And Thomas Gitau Njogu, a senior assistant accountant general at the state department of interior and coordination of national government, had Sh111,681,931 of unexplained wealth, which the commission sought to be forfeited to the court.
According to documents filed in court, Mr Gikonyo and his spouse seem, in the eyes of EACC, to have made such considerable wealth between 1998 and 2016, way beyond any source of their income.
Their cumulative salaries during the period was Sh14,332,803, proceeds of tea totalling Sh4,036,508, profit from sale of property Sh21,550,000 and Ushuru Sacco loans Sh5,114,900.
But they made cumulative cash deposits in their Giche Limited Company account of Sh399,044,707 from 17 July 2010 to February 4, 2016.
Between 1998 and 2018, Mr Gikonyo and his spouse acquired immovable property currently valued at Sh355,800,000, being registered proportionately between the two.
Most of the money that Mr Gikonyo received was sent to him via M-Pesa by directors of various clearing and forwarding companies.
ASSETS FROZEN
The court documents filed by EACC showed that with the proceeds, he acquired several plots in Mtwapa, Kilifi, Mombasa, Umoja Inner Core in Nairobi and Mwangunda in Kwale.
Former Nairobi County government head of accounting Stephen Ogaga Osiro is said to have amassed Sh340 million fortune in both cash and property between January 2011 and April 2016.
In his wealth declaration forms, Mr Osiro had stated that his income was a modest Sh6,440,000 while his assets were estimated at Sh36,000,000 while his total liabilities were Sh1,550,000.
On Friday, the orders were extended until the matter is heard and determined.
In her order dated August 28, 2018 freezing Mr Osiro and his wife Caroline Odhiambo Obwa’s assets, including millions of shillings held in various bank accounts and immovable assets spread across Nairobi, Kajiado and Kisumu counties, High Court Judge Hedwig Ong’udi issued a restraining order on the one time treasurer of the defunct Kisumu Municipal Council.
She restrained them from transferring, leasing, charging, wasting or disposing 38 parcels of land located in Nairobi, Kajiado and Kisumu counties, as well as two motor vehicles, a Toyota Prado and a Toyota Mark X.
UNEXPLAINED ASSETS
Separately, an accountant at the Interior ministry on a Sh155,000 monthly gross salary also amassed for himself and his family a Sh111 million fortune within 20 months.
The EACC secured orders freezing the assets of Thomas Gitau Njogu and his wife Teresia Njeri Gitau, including properties in Nairobi’s Thome Estate, Kitengela and Kabete.
Ms Ongudi further allowed EACC to keep in its custody Sh8,223,050 and 3,500 US dollars, which was seized from the couple’s residence and office premises on August 24, 2018.
The couple was also restrained from selling or transferring a Toyota Hilux car registration number KCL 350Z, pending further mention of the matter on Thursday.
In the affidavit seeking orders to freeze the Osiros' fortune, EACC lawyer Judith Mwanzia Shamalla said investigations carried out by the anti-graft body had established that the couple had acquired unexplained assets worth Sh318,637,338.60 and US$110,375 between January 2011 and April 2016.
“The unexplained assets comprise cash Sh293,842,338.60 and Sh21,295,000 (total purchase sum of assets not linked to deposits) and a motor vehicle valued at approximately Sh3,500,000,” Ms Shamalla stated in her sworn affidavit.
MISUSE PUBLIC FUNDS
Suit papers showed the couple held properties registered in their names or those of their children.
The properties included apartments and flats in Nairobi’s Lavington, Kileleshwa, Runda and Riara estates as well as land in Kitengela, Kisumu municipality, Muhoroni and in his rural home in Nyando, Kisumu County.
An affidavit sworn by Ms Grace Wambui Maina on behalf of EACC showed that Mr Njogu and his wife had “embezzled and/or misappropriated public funds from the State department for Interior and Coordination of National Government amounting to Sh111,681,931.98.”
“The 1st defendant was, at all times material to this suit, earning a gross salary of approximately Sh155,000 a month,” she stated.
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