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Anti-Corruption court freezes Ksh537 million belonging to Nairobi county employee

Thursday, May 25th, 2023 21:30 | By
Services resume at City Hall after workers call off strike
Nairobi City Hall. PHOTO/Print

The Anti-Corruption High Court has frozen the assets belonging to a City Hall employee over Ksh537 million unexplained wealth.

Justice Esther Maina issued orders freezing the multi-million shillings property belonging to Michael Auka Ajwang, a junior procurement employee earning a Ksh21,000 monthly salary.

The Judge allowed an application by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to preserve the assets including 11 vehicles, nine parcels of land and a 3-Star hotel in Kisumu County belonging to Anjwag and his firm, the Hydeout Riviera Limited on grounds that the same was acquired corruptly.

Pressing for the orders, EACC informed Justice Maina that Anjwag is believed to have engaged in grand corruption at city hall.

The judge proceeded to grant the orders to have properties belonging to the officer frozen pending the hearing and determination of the suit by the commission.

The properties include a high-end property in Kisumu County.

"Pending the hearing and determination of this application inter-parties, a temporary injunction is issued restraining Anjwag, his agents or servants from transferring, disposal howsoever the said properties," Justice Maina ordered.

Further, She further barred the county employee from demanding back Ksh799,000 recovered by EACC detectives during a raid at his house in 2022.

Anti-corruption detectives informed the court that preliminary investigations revealed that Ajwang, 45, received Ksh40.8 million in bribes from different companies awarded tenders by the County Government of Nairobi.

Ajwang, as per the lawsuit by the EACC, has been listed as the first respondent while a company called Riviera Limited has been listed as the second respondent. It is alleged in court that the company is owned by Ajwang's wife.

According to the commission, Some of the assets were traced to his spouse's companies.

"He ( Ajwang) earns an average net monthly salary of Ksh21,000. In the period under investigation (January 2014 to June 2022), he earned a net salary amounting to Ksh2,122,232.56. Preliminary investigations established that Anjwag has been receiving monies suspected to be bribed from entities awarded tenders by Nairobi City County," the commission states.

The high-end hotel is situated in Kisumu County while Anjwag's nine parcels of land are located in Siaya, Kisumu and Nairobi counties and have a further 11 corruptly acquired vehicles.

The temporary orders issued in August 2022 when EACC took over the matter were meant to allow EACC to undertake investigations to verify the allegations and check if the wealth was genuine or could be accounted for.

Those investigations were completed this month. The suspect has been unable to satisfactorily explain the source of his wealth.

He refused to honour the EACC demand that he surrenders the wealth to the government, prompting the filing of a recovery case on Monday.

It is due to this recovery case that new orders were issued on May 23, 2023, freezing the assets until the day the recovery case will be fully heard and determined.

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