{"id":12693,"date":"2020-08-12T18:33:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T18:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=12693"},"modified":"2020-08-12T18:33:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T18:33:29","slug":"state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m","title":{"rendered":"State hangs on to Sonko\u2019s Sh500m"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Author:\u00a0Kamau Muthoni\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (<strong>pictured<\/strong>) has failed to persuade a court that he is broke and cannot\u00a0even buy\u00a0groceries for his family after\u00a0his accounts were frozen.<\/p>\n<p>The governor had petitioned the Anti-Corruption Court\u00a0as he sought access to Sh500 million stashed in accounts held by the State.\u00a0Sonko, who loves public display of opulence, is up against the Asset Recovery Agency\u00a0(ARA) which had obtained orders to freeze the accounts following suspicion that some cash transactions were proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n<p>While dismissing the governor\u2019s application, Justice Jessie Lessit observed that he had not pleaded that by freezing his accounts, the State had caused him undue hardship by taking away his living expenses.<\/p>\n<p>According to the judge, the orders issued by Justice Luka Kimaru in February this year were within the law.\u00a0Sonko, she added, did not properly approach the court to seek for a variation.\u00a0The case was first placed before\u00a0Justice Mumbi Ngugi who\u00a0recused herself. It was then heard by\u00a0Justice Kimaru who froze his accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find the orders sought to be set aside and the proceedings sought to be struck out and dismissed were properly filed and orders issued regularly and ought not to be struck out or set aside,\u201d she ruled.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Witch hunt<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"list-group readmore my-3\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\"><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Justice Lessit continued: \u201cI find that the applicant has not met the threshold under Section 89 of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act\u00a0to have the impugned preservation orders varied or rescinded or for any other order provided thereunder.\u201d\u00a0The embattled governor had claimed that he was a victim of a witch hunt.<\/p>\n<p>The ARA, he said, had little more than unfounded suspicion to go on, while the orders freezing his accounts were similar to those that had been issued by a magistrate\u2019s court and later lifted.<\/p>\n<p>It has also\u00a0emerged that the ARA, after preserving the accounts, has initiated the final steps of recovering the money believed to have been siphoned from public coffers.<\/p>\n<p>Sonko has six accounts at Equity Bank, three at Diamond Trust Bank, one\u00a0at Co-operative Bank\u00a0with at least Sh18 million, and\u00a0one at Kenya Commercial Bank.\u00a0According to the ARA, an analysis of the governor\u2019s accounts reveals a clear case of smurfing.<\/p>\n<p>This is a technique used in money laundering where cash is divided between individuals known as \u2018smurfs\u2019\u00a0who make multiple deposits into multiple accounts.\u00a0In this way, banks cannot detect or suspect that those making deposits are connected to the owner of the account<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author:\u00a0Kamau Muthoni\u00a0 AfricaPress-Kenya: Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (pictured) has failed to persuade a court that he is broke and cannot\u00a0even buy\u00a0groceries for his family after\u00a0his accounts were frozen. The governor had petitioned the Anti-Corruption Court\u00a0as he sought access to Sh500 million stashed in accounts held by the State.\u00a0Sonko, who loves public display of opulence, is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[5184,1505,3701],"class_list":["post-12693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-asset-recovery-agency","tag-governor-mike-sonko","tag-justice-mumbi-ngugi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>State hangs on to Sonko\u2019s Sh500m - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (pictured) has failed to persuade a court that he is broke and cannot\u00a0even buy\u00a0groceries for his family after\u00a0his accounts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State hangs on to Sonko\u2019s Sh500m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (pictured) has failed to persuade a court that he is broke and cannot\u00a0even buy\u00a0groceries for his family after\u00a0his accounts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-12T18:33:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/08\/state_hangs_on_to_so5f32e06fd5571.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"State hangs on to Sonko\u2019s Sh500m\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-12T18:33:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\"},\"wordCount\":428,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/08\/state_hangs_on_to_so5f32e06fd5571.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Asset Recovery Agency\",\"Governor Mike Sonko\",\"Justice Mumbi Ngugi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/state-hangs-on-to-sonkos-sh500m\",\"name\":\"State hangs on to Sonko\u2019s Sh500m - 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