EACC freezes Ksh.278M unexplained assets belonging to KEBS Board Chair Jeremiah Kinyua

The High Court has granted the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) orders freezing unexplained assets including 19 properties worth over Ksh.278 million belonging to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) Board Chairman Jeremiah Kamau Kinyua.

Mr. Kinyua was recently appointed by Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria as the new Chairperson of KEBS Board, which is referred to as the National Standards Council.

EACC sought orders to freeze Mr. Kinyua’s assets claiming he had acquired unexplained wealth during his time as a senior Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) official.

The commission has been conducting investigations with the assets preserved under a temporary injunction issued in May 2022, but now wants all of it forfeited to the government as proceeds of graft.

The new High Court orders issued by Justice Esther Maina now mean that the assets will remain frozen until the forfeiture case filed by EACC on May 12, 2023 is fully heard and determined.

Among the unexplained assets the EACC is seeking include cash amounting to over Ksh.91.6 million transacted by Mr. Kinyua through numerous bank and M-Pesa accounts registered to him as well as a company known as Cherya Enterprises Limited which is associated with him.

Court documents seen by Citizen Digital also list parcels of land worth over Ksh.181.8 million linked to Mr. Kinyua, Cherya Enterprises Limited and a third company – Bestline Enterprises Limited – in Nairobi, Kitengela, Laikipia and Ruiru.

EACC, according to the documents, further wants to seize a Toyota Prado vehicle registered with Cherya Enterprises Limited worth an approximated Ksh.5 million.

A source at the commission told Citizen Digital that a probe had revealed that, between January 2012 and January 2021, Mr. Kinyua - who was a Supervisor at the Domestic Tax Department at KRA – “had exploited his official position of trust in the public service and used privileged official information obtained during his employ for private gain.”

“Investigations by the Plaintiff (EACC) revealed that the 1st Defendant (Mr. Kinyua) received substantial successive cash deposits in his various bank accounts which he could not satisfactorily demonstrate the source and therefore the Commission reasonably suspects that the same were bribes received by the 1st Defendant (Mr. Kinyua) by virtue of his employ at KRA,” court documents read.

The probe also established that Mr. Kinyua’s known legitimate source of income during the period under question, which was his salary earned from KRA, amounted to Ksh.11,661,235.01.

“Investigations revealed that in the period of interest the 1st Defendant (Mr. Kinyua) acquired landed property valued at Ksh.124,800,000.00; bank account and M-pesa deposits as well as recovered cash amounting to Ksh.61,150,438.75 all summing up to a cumulative value of all these assets to Ksh.174,289,203.73 less his salary earned during the period of interest,” added court documents.

“The commission has been able to demonstrate that the 1st, 2nd and 3rdDefendants (Mr. Kinyua, Bestline Enterprises Limited, and Cherya Enterprises Limited respectively) accumulated assets valued at Ksh.278,353,095.13 which value is disproportionate to their known legitimate sources of income and whose acquisition was at a time when the 1st Defendant (Mr. Kinyua) was suspected of corruption.”