EACC seeks to freeze accounts linked to stolen millions

HOMABAY, KENYA: The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is seeking court orders to access and freeze bank accounts belonging to a wife of a senior employee of the Homa Bay County Assembly, said to be holding millions of shilling allegedly stolen from the Assembly.

Homa Bay resident judge, Justice Hellen Omondi on Wednesday said she will rule on the matter on April 30, 2017.

The Commission's forensic investigator Ahmed Osman on Tuesday filed an application before Homa Bay High Court seeking permission to access bank accounts belonging to Ms Evelyn Ogutu, who he claimed may have been paid more than Sh 40m, yet she was neither an employee nor a contractor with the County Assembly.

Mr Osman wants Ms Ogutu's accounts frozen for at least six months to permit the commission to probe alleged loss of millions of shillings illegally paid to her.

He said in an affidavit that Ms Ogutu had received irregular payment worth millions of shillings through her company Nyangume Enterprises in tenders not done or rightfully awarded.

"The accused is a sole proprietor of business in the name of Nyangume Enterprise which has been used to allegedly defraud the assembly millions of shillings," read the court application.

A lawyer representing EACC Ms. Mildred Amojong' said in her application that preliminary investigations have established that Nyangume Enterprises delivered no goods or services to the Assembly to warrant the hefty payments. She said the illegal payments to the company amounted to embezzlement of public funds, abuse of office and money laundering.

According to a report attached to the application, Ms Ogutu received over Sh2 million from the assembly just in one month for services not rendered.