The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has seized two homes in Runda and three apartments in Kilimani belonging to former Nairobi County chief finance officer Jimmy Kiamba.
The agency also targeted a maisonette in South C and Sh113.8 million in a bank account, after Mr Kiamba lost a bid to escalate the fight to retain the properties, to the Supreme Court.
The EACC said the properties targeted for seizure are valued at Sh500 million, adding they are proceeds of crime.
In a May 10 ruling, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court rejected Mr Kiamba’s appeal, citing lack of jurisdiction.
“It is our considered view that the issues raised by the applicants are not sufficient to trigger this court’s jurisdiction under Article 163(4)(a) of the Constitution and neither the petition of appeal nor the present motion are properly before us. We uphold the 1st respondent’s (EACC’s) submissions on jurisdiction,” the court judges said.
The Court of Appeal in February ruled that Mr Kiamba did not provide enough evidence to support claims that he bought the houses between 2009 and 2013.
Documents tabled showed that he acquired the first on October 27, 2010, for Sh14 million, a second and a third one on May 10, 2012, for Sh15 million and Sh15.5 million respectively, and a maisonette in South C for Sh10.5 million in 2010.
Mr Kiamba also acquired an apartment named Skyrock for Sh25 million on August 17, 2012.
He had argued that he was engaged in large-scale farming, rearing of livestock since 2006, had two hotels in Mombasa and Machakos, engaged in water and quarry business in Machakos, plus rental income from properties jointly owned with his wife.
“Even if one was to assume that the undisputed properties generated income, there was no evidence placed before court in support of huge sums of rent that would have enabled the appellants to acquire the properties they did in upmarket Nairobi,” Justices Imaana Laibuta, Abida Ali-Aroni and John Mativo said in a judgment on February 9.
Mr Kiamba and his spouse, however, convinced the Court of Appeal that the High Court had included their rental and business earnings in the amount to be forfeited to the state.
“The appeal succeeds only to the extent that we hereby set aside the trial court’s order requiring the 1st appellant to pay to the Government the sum of KShs. 282,648,604 and, in its place, we hereby order and direct that the appellants do jointly and severally pay or forfeit to the Government of Kenya the sum of Kshs. 113,893,743, being the unexplained cash in their bank accounts,” the judges said.
Ms Mbinya informed the court that she received a monthly rental income of Sh250,000 from one of the apartments she owned, a monthly income from her interior design company of Sh1 million and from the beauty palour, she earned Sh200,000 a month.
“We therefore fault the learned trial judge for finding, in the absence of sufficient explanation and supporting evidence, that the appellants known income could support the purchase of the following assets,” the judges said.
