The High Court has frozen more than 19 properties worth Sh278 million belonging to Jeremiah Kamau Kinyua, the new Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) board chairman.
The fortune is thought to have been amassed through bribes when he worked for the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Kinyua was appointed chairperson of the National Standards Council, the policy-making body for Kebs, which is embroiled in a sugar controversy, in January by Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria.
His predicament was exacerbated last week when the High Court granted the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) a stay of execution awaiting an application for forfeiture of the assets to the State.
“The defendants have not shown to this court the inconvenience suffered that would outweigh the impending risk of loss or dissipation of the suit properties,” said the court while freezing the assets.
Kinyua previously served as the chief of the KRA’s field enforcement operations team in Nairobi, and the anti-graft agency believes the riches were obtained through corruption. The EACC is concerned that Kinyua will dispose of his properties in Nairobi, Kitengela, Kiambu, and Laikipia in order to resist the forfeiture suit.
According to EACC Kinyua and his enterprises have previously engaged in schemes to conceal assets in corporate entities. The EACC stated that there is an urgent need to ban any dealings with the aforementioned assets in order to avoid them from being wasted, as this would render the forfeiture proceedings ineffective.
Kinyua was named chairperson of the NSC in a gazette notification on January 20 for a three-year term. EACC had however filed a complaint last year, alleging that Kinyua obtained his property through bribery. This is after amassing Sh359.5 million in assets.
Plots in Nairobi and three more in Kitengela total Sh68 million in value. According to EACC, the land in Laikipia is registered in the name of Bestline Enterprises and is worth Sh18 million.
Four plots in Ruiru, Kiambu County, valued at Sh95 million, have also been frozen, as has a Toyota Prado registered in a firm called Cherya Enterprises. On June 9, 2021, the anti-graft commission took Sh500,000 and yuan 15,648.00 in cash from his home.
The court granted the EACC’s request to keep the money awaiting the outcome of the case.
Kinyua was at the KRA for seven years before resigning in March 2021. According to the EACC, his net compensation for the time was Sh11.6 million.
