Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko has told a Nairobi court that there was no shred of evidence to warrant the freezing of his accounts.
Through lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui, the Governor told Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku that Asset Recovery Agency continues to freeze Sonko’s accounts including mortgage accounts despite the expiry of exparte court orders obtained by the Agency last year.
The court heard that the Governor’s accounts been flagged off over claims of money laundering.
It was his submission that the orders given by Senior Principal Magistrate Electa Riany were only for 14 days and have therefore expired and there was no application to extend the said orders.
“These orders were never extended after they lapsed on 27th December 2019. The asset recovery never an application to renew or revive them. Consequently. The default position is that the account stand unfrozen,” Kinyanjui added.
In addition, the lawyer said it was shocking that ARA could freeze a mortgage account operated by the Governor when there was not a shred of evidence that such a mortgage account had any suspicious or criminal transactions.
“The bank itself expressly requested the court to unfreeze the mortgage accounts,” the lawyer said.
He added 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.
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.
According to the lawyer, 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.
“There was a bundle of statements of accounts numbering 500 pages, none of which bore any evidence of a transaction of a criminal nature or constituting money laundering”, Kinyanjui told the court.
