Former PS defends wealth, says she did not steal NYS funds

Former Youth and Gender Affairs Principal Secretary Lillian Omollo (pictured) is fighting to have access to her accounts, which were frozen over claims of money laundering.

Ms Omollo accused the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) of being jealous of her hard-earned wealth, even after she proved that she did not benefit from the Sh467 million National Youth Service (NYS) scam.

She argued that an application by ARA seeking to compel her to forfeit her wealth to the Government — for being proceeds of crime — is misconceived and does not deserve to be entertained in court.

“Their claims that money in my accounts was stolen from NYS are incorrect, irrational and malicious. I have never benefited from proceeds of crime and money laundering, the agency deliberately ignored my explanation of the sources of my wealth,” said Omollo.

Lady Justice Hedwig Ong’udi in December last year froze 10 accounts belonging to Omollo, her three companies and her three children.

NYS money

This is after the agency made an application seeking to have her surrender the funds to the state on grounds that they were part of the money stolen from NYS.

The frozen accounts had a total of Sh32.8 million. ARA has argued that since Omollo and other suspects were charged in relations to Sh467,896,993 theft at NYS, investigations have revealed a systematic fraud and siphoning of public funds which must be recovered and returned to state coffers.