Court refuses to unfreeze IEBC ‘chicken’ agent’s bank accounts

The High Court has refused to open three frozen bank accounts operated by Trevy James Oyombra, the man at the centre of an alleged bribery scam involving Kenya’s election agency and British security printer Smith & Ouzman.

Lady Justice Farah Amin last Friday ruled that Mr Oyombra had not furnished the court with enough evidence to prove that Oriental Commercial Bank (OCB) had violated his rights by blocking his access to the accounts.

The judge said she had considered ordering the bank to allow Mr Oyombra to withdraw enough money for his immediate needs, but found that the businessman had failed to furnish the court with crucial evidence of what his urgent financial obligations are and how much money he needed to meet them.

“The court would be amenable to making an order that the bank provide Mr Oyombra with sufficient funds to meet his needs. Unfortunately, he has not provided any evidence as to what those needs would be and the costs thereof,” said Justice Amin.

Mr Oyombra had told the court that he was unable to pay his rent, and was at risk of being unable to buy food and other basic needs for his family.

But the judge maintained that she would only order the bank to let him withdraw enough money to meet his urgent financial obligations if he files an affidavit showing clearly what his needs are, how much he would need to meet them and why he needs the amount asked for.

OCB froze the three accounts between November 15 and 21 after it was served with court orders directing it to allow the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) access to the accounts for purposes of investigating his alleged involvement in bribing electoral officials on behalf of Smith & Ouzman.

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Two of the accounts are in the name of Pic Centre, a photography agency associated with the former IEBC agent-while the third is Mr Oyombra’s personal account.

Pic Centre says it has been unable to pay its workers’ salaries and rent for its Biashara Street office following the freeze.

The firm holds that it is a separate entity from Mr Oyombra and should not have its accounts frozen because of the investigations into Mr Oyombra, one of its directors.

Pic Centre further claims in court papers that some of its workers have threatened to take legal action against it for failing to pay their November salaries, a situation it insists arose from blockage of the accounts.

Justice Amin, however, found that Mr Oyombra had withdrawn more than Sh900,000 between November 17 and 21 from Pic Centre’s account, but had failed to meet the firm’s urgent obligations, bringing into doubt whether the withdrawals were made for a noble cause.

“It is unclear what happened to the funds withdrawn between November 17 and 22 and why they were not used to pay Pic Centre’s existing debts giving rise to an issue as to clean hands,” she said.

Mr Oyombra argues that the bank should not have frozen the accounts, because the court orders that EACC served it with only provided for scrutiny of documents and transactions, especially between January 2013, and August this year.

OCB, however, says that freezing accounts that are under investigation is part of its terms and conditions for operating an account with the bank, and that the same was approved by its board of directors.

“The bank may at any time freeze the account of the customer if there is any dispute or the bank has any other reason (whether or not well founded) as to the person or persons entitled to operate the same, or take any other step of its own initiative for determination of such doubt,” the bank said.

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The bank has, however, agreed to refund Mr Oyombra any bank charges he will have incurred in the period within which the accounts will be frozen, because they are not in operation until they are unblocked.

Mr Oyombra further claims that four bank officials he met to explain the situation told him that the freeze was enacted to avoid the negative publicity he was likely to cause the institution through the investigations.

“The staff confirmed that the accounts were, indeed, frozen courtesy of instructions from the board of directors purportedly on account that I had been adversely mentioned in the media as having been involved in bribery of electoral officials and that the same reflects negatively on the bank,” he said.

OCB maintains that the freeze was at the request of EACC, and that Mr Oyombra signed on to the bank’s terms and conditions when he opened the accounts.

“EACC asked the bank to freeze the accounts. Further, when the plaintiffs opened the accounts with the bank, they did so under the standard terms and conditions,” OCB said.