City Hall employee earning Sh21,000 a month amassed Sh537m fortune, court told
Integrity Centre that hosts Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission offices in Nairobi.
The Anti-Corruption Court has frozen the assets of a City Hall employee over Sh537 million in unexplained wealth.
Justice Esther Maina made the order freezing the multi-million shillings assets of Michael Auka Ajwang, a junior procurement officer at City Hall who draws a monthly salary of Sh21000.
The magistrate granted an application by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to freeze the assets, which include 11 vehicles, nine plots of land and a three-star hotel in Kisumu County, belonging to Ajwang and his company, Hydeout Riviera Limited, on the grounds that they were corruptly acquired.
In pressing for the orders, the EACC told Justice Maina that Anjwag was believed to have been involved in grand corruption at the town hall.
The judge granted the orders freezing properties belonging to the official pending the hearing and determination of the commission's case.
"Pending the hearing and determination of this application between the parties, an order of interim injunction is hereby granted restraining Anjwag, his agents or servants from transferring or disposing of the said properties in any manner whatsoever," Justice Maina ordered.
She also restrained the county official from recovering the Sh799,000 recovered by EACC detectives when they raided his house in 2022.
Anti-corruption detectives told the court that preliminary investigations revealed that Ajwang, 45, received Sh40.8 million in bribes from various companies that had won tenders from the Nairobi County government.
Ajwang is listed as the first respondent in the EACC case, while a company called Riviera Limited is listed as the second respondent. The company is alleged to be owned by Ajwang's wife.
According to the commission, some of the assets have been traced to his wife's companies.
"He (Ajwang) earns an average net monthly salary of Sh21,000. During the period under investigation (January 2014 to June 2022), he earned a net salary of Sh2,122,232.56. Preliminary investigations revealed that Anjwag received money suspected to be bribes from companies that won tenders from Nairobi City County," the commission said.
The high-end hotel is located in Kisumu County, while Anjwag owns nine plots of land in Siaya, Kisumu and Nairobi counties, as well as 11 corruptly acquired vehicles.
