Economy

KHRC gets court order lifting freeze on bank accounts

case

Human rights agency wins reprieve as judge also bars regulator from shutting it down. PHOTO | FILE

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has obtained a court order barring the government from freezing its bank accounts.

The agency is also fighting an attempt by the government to deregister it over alleged misappropriation of funds, money laundering and sponsorship of terrorists.

Justice George Odunga issued the order after KHRC argued that the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordination Board did not issue KHRC with a notice as required by law before freezing its bank accounts.

The judge has also stopped the regulator from shutting down the KHRC.

The human rights agency moved to court after the State NGOs regulator accused it of using four secret bank accounts to launder illicit funds and fund terrorist activities in the country.

The board is in the process of shutting down 957 organisations it claims to be running money laundering rings, funding terrorism and misappropriating donor funds. It claims the KHRC has been cooking books to hide over Sh1.2 billion held in four illegal bank accounts.

“A temporary order of injunction is hereby issued restraining the NGOs Co-ordination Board from deregistering the KHRC, ordering the freezing of its accounts by the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenya Bankers Association and ordering its investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Finance Reporting Centre pending the inter-parties hearing,” Justice Odunga ordered.

The NGOs regulator is yet to respond to the suit. The matter was to come up for hearing Monday but was adjourned as Justice Odunga is away on leave.

The civil liberties lobby insists that it has never raised more than Sh200 million at any time in its history and that the figure stated by the NGOs regulator is absurd.

Its deputy Executive Director Davis Malombe says he only received a letter querying KHRC’s operations after its accounts were frozen.

“The KHRC had not been given any notice with specific complaints. The petitioner wrote to the NGOs Co-ordination Board seeking an explanation but it has not replied to date. The NGOs Co-ordination Board’s reckless activities pose a grave danger to the KHRC’s image,” Mr Malombe says.

Fazul Mahmed, the regulator’s chief executive, said last month that an audit revealed that over Sh23 billion could not be accounted for following an audit into funds received by NGOs.

Among organisations suspected of mega fraud alongside the KHRC are the African Population and Health Research Centre (Sh5.8 billion), African Development Solutions (Sh9.7 billion), the Kalonzo Musyoka Foundation (Sh64 million) and Deaf Aid (Sh164 million).