A Kiambu court has said that the prosecution cannot be allowed to ride on orders it never sought in having bank accounts of businessman Humphrey Kariuki frozen.
WOW beverages limited had moved to court and made an application to restrain the DPP, the police investigating officer Noah Biego or any other person from searching, freezing bank accounts belonging to them.
While reading out a ruling on the application Senior Principal Magistrate Stella Atambo said that the orders extracted by the investigating officer included orders of preservation of accounts, an order that was never granted by the court even though the court signed the extracted order which contained the subject preservation orders.
“The order of preservation have been improperly obtained. It is not sincere for the prosecution to submit that this court has no jurisdiction to correct its own mistakes,” Atambo said.
Biego had earlier applied that the court to grant him access and obtain information and carry away certified documents related to nine accounts belonging to Kariuki.
He also sought if the order is granted, be served to both national and commercial banks.
Atambo said in her ruling that WOW Beverage Limited was not served with the order and it was a patent mistake that the court needed to correct.
“Provisions of section 180 (1) of the Evidence Act does not allow freezing of bank accounts but for accessing to investigate them only. This court is not sitting on its own revision because such orders from the word go were never granted,” Atambo said.
The company has been jointly charged with others on various counts of failing to pay taxes, being in possession of counterfeit stamps, failing to partake among others.
Through investigations, it was established that there are a large sum of money and unexplained relating to money laundering and other probable offences.
The matter is currently before the High court in Milimani.
