NYS probe officers ‘find shrubs’ on Omollo’s multi-million farm

Detectives have found shrubs in a Siaya land where former PS Lillian Omollo said she was running a multi-million shilling horticulture enterprise in a suit where the state has frozen Sh33.1 million on claims it was linked to cash stolen from the National Youth Service.

Police attached to the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) reckon they found no farming activity in the Bondo land belonging former nationalist Ramogi Achieng’ Oneko, adding that section of it has tomatoes meant for home consumption.

The 10 accounts with Sh33.1 million were frozen in October after investigators told the court Ms Omollo made cash deposits of millions of shillings in the accounts in months when the theft of funds was reported at the NYS.

Ms Omollo had argued that the ARA lacked proof that the cash in the accounts are proceeds of crime, claiming that the amounts were from her farming business in Bondo and payments for consultancy services to her husband, Dick Oruko Oneko, who worked in South Sudan. Mr Oruko is the son of Mr Oneko.

“We established that there were no farming activities going on the land as alleged by the 1st respondent (Ms Omollo)…we established there a piece of land with shrubs,” said the ARA in court documents.

The agency says the receipts Ms Omollo provided for her farming enterprise were estimated at Sh390,000, arguing it was far below the frozen funds.

The agency also dismissed Ms Omollo’s defence that cash in her accounts and those of her children were wired by her husband, Mr Oneko, from a consultancy works.

A review of Mr Oneko’s banks account at CFC Stanbic indicated he received Sh22.7 million in dollars between August 2011 and April 2019.

“The branch established that there was no single deposit for the period of 2016, 2017 and 2018, which is the period under investigations,” says the ARA, while maintaining that cash in the 10 accounts

Ms Omollo’s seven bank accounts had Sh20.6 million while that of her children — Sheela Mbogo, Stephanie Mbogo and Shalom Kamwetu — had Sh12.5 million. She is facing charges together with former senior officials at NYS over the loss of Sh468 million.