Embattled Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko breathed a sigh of relief after the court ruled in his favour in a case pitting him against the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) on Tuesday, January 4, as reported by Citizen Digital.
An order was issued by the court, directing the ARA to allow the governor to access his bank accounts that had been frozen by the agency, pending graft charges. The accounts were subject to allegations of holding proceeds of corruption.
Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku upheld Sonko's argument that the agency had frozen his accounts without a proper court order.
Justice Mutuku stated that the ARA was acting on a non-existent order for failing to extend the initial 14-day ultimatum they were issued with by the court.
Sonko's bank accounts had been frozen by the agency following an ex-parte order issued by Magistrate E. Riany on December 11, 2019. This allowed it to look into his statement of accounts, account opening statements, cash and cheque deposit slips, withdrawals and real time gross settlements (RTGS) starting January 2017.
Therefore, the ARA was required to go back to court on December 23 and seek an extension of the order.
"The continued freezing of the accounts will be highly prejudicial to the holders of the accounts and I, therefore, direct the unfreezing of the accounts by the agency," Justice Mutuku ruled.
The accounts were held in the banks; KCB Group, Diamond Trust Bank, I&M Bank, Sidian Bank, National Bank of Kenya, Bank of Africa, Equity Bank, Cooperative Bank, and Credit Bank.
Through his lawyer, Harrison Kinyanjui, Sonko had stated that he was broke and unable to fend for his family since he had no access to his accounts let alone his salary as governor.
“To continue festering these bank accounts of the applicant in the manner complained of itself is a violation of the constitution,” Kinyanjui argued.
Justice Mutuku had directed that all the banks named in the court documents be served and respond to Sonko's application challenging the orders to freeze, a directive the ARA failed to honour.
She gave the agency an ultimatum of 10 days to lift the freeze on Sonko's accounts.
