Justice Rose Ougo ordered that the account of Hartland Enterprises Limited be frozen for six months, to allow the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC)to complete investigations.
The account at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya holds Sh13.5 million.
The anti-graft agency alleges that the company is associated with James Mumali Oyuka and Mary Pauline Oduor.
The High Court has frozen the bank account of a firm associated with two employees of Homa Bay County, suspected to have illegally benefited from multimillion-shilling contracts of the devolved unit.
Justice Rose Ougo ordered that the account of Hartland Enterprises Limited be frozen for six months, to allow the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC)to complete investigations.
The account at the Co-operative Bank of Kenya holds Sh13.5 million.
The anti-graft agency alleges that the company is associated with James Mumali Oyuka and Mary Pauline Oduor.
“There is, therefore, a need to preserve the money in the listed account for a period of six (6) months to avoid the same being, dissipated, transferred, withdrawn, and or disposed thereby rendering this application and any intended recovery suit nugatory,” EACC said in the petition.
EACC says the company has been procuring tenders and contracts from the county government and fraudulently acquiring public funds through fictitious or irregular contracts.
Court documents state that in July 2019, Hartland Enterprises entered into a contract with the County Assembly of Homa-Bay for the construction of MCA’s offices for Sh348 million.
The construction was, however, stopped by the national government in March this year, after it emerged that the building was being erected on land belonging to the national government.
But even after being stopped, EACC says the company continued receiving payment of Sh26.9 million from Homa-Bay County, with the most recent being between June 30, and July 20, this year.
“Preliminary investigations have further revealed that the 2nd Respondent and 3rd Respondents who are directors of the 1st Respondent are employees of the County Government of Homa-Bay as Public Health Technician and Community Nurse respectively,” EACC says.
And after receiving the payments, EACC says Mr Oyuka would then withdraw the money in cash or transfer it to personal accounts.
Preliminary investigations further reveal that huge amounts of money received into the accounts of the 1st Respondent are traceable from the County Government of Homa-Bay.
“There is reasonable suspicion, in view of the apparent conflict of interest and abuse of office against the 2nd and 3rd Respondents that the awards of tender to a company owned by them were vastly inflated or were procured through fictitious or irregular contracts,” EACC said.
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