The High Court has frozen more than 19 properties estimated to be worth Sh278 million belonging to the new Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) board chairman Jeremiah Kamau Kinyua.
The wealth is suspected to have been acquired through bribes while he worked at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Mr Kinyua was appointed by Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria as the chairperson of the National Standards Council, the policy-setting organ for Kebs, which is at the centre of a sugar scandal, in January.
His troubles worsened last week when the High Court allowed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to bar him from disposing of the properties, pending an application for forfeiture of the assets to the State.
Dr Kinyua previously worked as the head of the field enforcement operations unit at the KRA in Nairobi and the anti-graft body suspects that the wealth was acquired through corruption.
The EACC says it is apprehensive that Dr Kinyua would dispose of the properties in Nairobi, Kitengela, Kiambu and Laikipia to defeat the forfeiture application.
“The defendants have not shown to this court the inconvenience suffered that would outweigh the impending risk of loss or dissipation of the suit properties,” the judge said, adding that in the circumstances, it was right to grant the injunction in favour of the EACC.
