Governor Sonko in court over access to frozen accounts
Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko has moved to court seeking orders to have his accounts unfrozen to enable him continue servicing his debts and mortgages.
Sonko argues that there was no shred of evidence to warrant the freezing of his accounts, which had been flagged over claims of money laundering.
The governor through his lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui informed Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku that Asset Recovery Agency continues to freeze his accounts including, those that he was using to service his mortgage despite the expiry of exparte court orders obtained by the Assets Recovery Agency last year.
The bank itself expressly requested the Court to unfreeze the mortgage accounts.
“The orders that the assets recovery agency had obtained exparte on the December 11,2019, before magistrate Electer Rianyi had a life of 14 days only,” Mutuku heard.
Lawyer Kinyanjui further told the court that the exparte Orders obtained by the Asset Recovery Agency expired on December 27 last year.
The Governor’s lawyer further told the court that the exparte obtained by agency expired on December last year and they did not make any application to extend the orders as required.
“These orders were never extended after they lapsed on the December 27,2019. The Asset Recovery Agency never put in an application to renew or revive them. Consequently.
The default position is that the account stand unfrozen”, Kinyanjui told the court.
The court also heard that there was a bundle of statements of accounts numbering 500 pages and none of which bore any evidence of a transaction of a criminal nature or constituting money laundering.
“After going through the 540 pages filed by the Agency we find that there is no evidence showing that money moved from the County Government of Nairobi to the Governor’s accounts,” Kinyanjui told journalists yesterday.
He said they will wait for the Court’s determination but, made it clear that the Agency was violating Article 31 of the constitution that provides for protection of an individual’s privacy.
Kinyanjui stated that there was no evidence tabled by the agency investigating officer corporal Isaac Mwaura to prove beyond reasonable doubts that the Governor accounts have a penny of corruptly obtained money as alleged at all.
“Even after ARA obtained the statement of accounts from all these banks it was not able to pinpoint a single shilling that has been flagged off as constituting a proceeds of crime or money laundering.
