Two companies facing graft charges alongside Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko in the Sh358 million graft case are seeking to have orders freezing their bank accounts lifted.
Hardi Enterprises and Toddy Civil Engineering have filed a fresh application in court. They are Sonko's co-accused in the graft case involving garbage collection tenders used to siphon Nairobi's public funds.
On February 24, Justice Mumbi Ngugi issued temporary orders to preserve Sh1.5 million held at an account in Equity bank and Sh6.9 million held at Sidian bank run by Hardi and Toddy respectively. The two directors are Anthony Nganga Mwaura and Rose Njeri Nganga.
She also prohibited the sale and transfer of nine vehicles registered in the name of Anthony Nganga Mwaura. The judge directed him to surrender the original logbook of the vehicles, among them a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Mercedes Benz.
Yesterday, lawyer Tom Ojienda said the companies were involved in multi-million projects and freezing of the accounts was hurting their work.
“My clients are businessmen, and they undertake several big projects for county and national governments providing essential services to citizens,” the papers read.
According to court documents, Hardi is undertaking construction of a modern outpatient block at Chuka Hospital and rehabilitation of PCEA town church in Kiambu among four other projects.
Toddy Civil Engineering is involved in the Kapenguria water supply project, construction of the Meru sewerage system, construction of stadia and six other projects.
The companies say the projects are funded using taxpayers' cash hence the need for them to be expeditiously concluded for the public to receive value for money.
“Performance of these projects require intense capital. Our accounts were frozen by Justice Ngugi making the performance of these projects impossible,” they claim.
Ojienda says even though most of the motor vehicles were acquired outside the period of interest, they were tools of trade necessary for the execution of not only the subject tender but also other pending projects undertaken by the two companies and directors Mwaura and Njeri.
He says the hardship the companies and directors would undergo and the public interest at stake outweighs any risk that the property concerned may be destroyed, lost, damaged, concealed or transferred.
When the Assets Recovery Agency obtained the orders before Ngugi, it argued that the company's funds were fraudulently obtained from the Nairobi county government and are the proceeds of crime.
The agency said that its investigations into money laundering of the proceeds of crime established that the respondents – the two companies and the two owners – were beneficiaries or acquired assets obtained from proceeds of crime.
The case will be heard on March 25.
Edited by A. Ndung'u
