The Kenyan government has for the second time seized assets belonging to the father of former US President Barack Obama.
The seizure was done through the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) and involves an unknown number East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL) shares that had been bought by Barack Hussein Obama (senior).
The elder Obama, who worked as a senior economist at the Ministry of Finance, died in 1982 in a tragic car accident.
UFAA is the government body that is allowed to seize any property that lays unclaimed within the Kenyan jurisdiction.
In 2014, the body had also seized the former economist’s life insurance of Sh55, 933 from the now defunct Kenya National Assurance Corporation (KNAC).
The lump sum had never been paid to Mr Obama’s beneficiaries upon his death.
The Harvard-trained economist had listed his eldest son Roy Obama, (he later converted to Islam and is now the infamous Malik Obama), and his youngest wife, Jael Otieno, as beneficiaries.
It is not clear why the government had held the assets for so long despite the fact that the family is well known in Kenya.
UFAA’s list of assets that are deemed unclaimed includes bank accounts that have been dormant for more than five years, bankers cheques not cashed for two years and contents in safe deposit boxes unclaimed for more than two years.
Matured life insurance policies unclaimed for more than two years and shares whose dividends have not been collected for more than three years also qualify to be handed over to the agency.
However, the holding company (such as EABL where Obama had bought the shares) has a duty to search for the beneficiaries before the assets are taken over by UFAA.
