Felicien Kabuga property cash missing, Kenya admits

Kenya does not know where the money collected from Felicien Kabuga’s property in Lavington, Nairobi went.

The revelations emerged yesterday during a Court of Appeal hearing where Kabuga’s wife Josephine Mukazitoni wanted the orders to freeze the property lifted. It is now seven years since the orders to freeze the property were issued by Justice Muga Apondi.

The proceeds ought to have been remitted to the court but the Government yesterday told the Court of Appeal that it was unsure if that has been the case. “At some point, there was a cheque indicating that the money was remitted but I cannot honestly say that that has been the issue to date,” lawyer Njagi Nderitu, representing the Government in the case, told the Appeal court judges.

Mr Njagi argued that the reason why the property was frozen and the proceeds presented to the Registrar of the Court was to ensure that the fugitive did not use the monies  to escape. A five-judge bench composed of justices Martha Koome, Erastus Githinji, Fatuma Sichale, Otieno Odek and Sankale ole Kantai took the lawyer to task on whether freezing the property owned by the couple was not depriving Mrs Kabuga of her right to enjoy the proceeds.

But Njagi said Kabuga’s wife had to suffer on behalf of her fugitive husband.

When the case was before the High Court in 2008, the Director of Public Prosecutions had said that the Sh290,000 collected by the Kenya Finance Trust on a quarterly basis was remitted to Kabuga’s wife’s account in Belgium and then used for his escape.

The lawyer submitted that the orders should remain in force, even though the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda wound up its operations in Tanzania in 2014. He argued that the orders would have lapsed if Kabuga was arrested and tried in the tribunal.

“The whereabouts of Kabuga are not known to date thus the orders of the court are still on. I think his wife should have moved the court to lift the orders. We froze kabuga’s property,” he said. Mrs Kabuga was 66 years old in 2008, according to court records. This means that she is at an advanced age.

The judges asked if the right to enjoy property should be postponed where a co-owner is involved in a criminal matter and the lawyer was of the opinion that joint ownership crucifies both owners because they are equal in their ownership.

But Mrs Kabuga argued that the Kenyan court did not have powers to issue orders while the case was before the tribunal. The judges will give their verdict on September 25.