The government on Wednesday, October 16, moved a step closer to recovering the assets bought by the Ngirita family with proceeds from their National Youth Service tenders.
Fredrick Musyoki an investigator stated that there was reasonable cause to believe that the properties are proceeds of crime and need to be preserved pending an application for them to be forfeited to the government.
According to the Assets Recovery Agency, the family failed to demonstrate how they acquired properties and the money that is subject to the investigation.
The Muthoni Kimani led agency further revealed that the family had not tabled any evidence to support claims that they secured contracts with NYS, supplied goods or even paid any taxes to the government on income made.
Phyllis Ngirita, Lucy Wambui and Jeremiah Gichina were also said to have failed to attach trading licences or contracts to support claims that they genuinely made the money being targeted.
“The respondents failed to produce tangible evidence of the purported legitimate agricultural
activities or legitimate business of supply of goods,” Musyoki stated.
The Assets Recovery Agency had gone to court seeking to have three vehicles and several parcels of land forfeited to the government, saying they are proceeds of crime.
The said properties were linked to Phylis, her brother Gichini and their mother Lucy.
Phyllis claimed to have supplied watermelons, cabbages, English potatoes, onions and green grams worth Ksh5.8 million in 2014 but a difference of Sh32,874,670 in payments received was not explained.
In the documents filed in court, the Ngiritas claimed that they were hardworking Kenyans “who supplied various government agencies with goods and services for over 20 years”.
