The High Court has frozen Sh227 million intercepted at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Bujumbura, Burundi, a week ago.
The money in US dollars was intercepted at the cargo shipping point destined to London.
Justice Esther Maina ordered that the money be deposited with the Assets Recovery Agency dollar account at Kenya Commercial Bank.
The preservation order shall remain in force for a period of 90 days. The case will be mentioned on May 31.
The court granted the order after the agency argued that there are reasonable grounds to suspect the funds may be a direct or indirect benefit, or proceeds of crime obtained from a complex money laundering scheme.
The court heard that on February 15, Customs and Border Control while undertaking the usual clearance procedure at JKIA noted an export entry.
The entry had been lodged to export currency amounting to 2 million US dollars from Kenya to the United Kingdom.
The consignor was indicated as Brinks Kenya while the consignee was Brinks Global Services UK but declared as exiting Kenya.
The funds according to the agency originated from Bujumbura, Burundi and was intercepted being reshipped to the United Kingdom without declaration.
In an affidavit, Fredrick Musyoki, an officer attached to the agency, said that on February 15 together with his co-investigator Isaac Naikatare and Daniel Leyian, they recorded a statement of one Andrew Kipkemboi.
Kipkemboi is an agent of Brinks Global Service-Kenya and Brinks Kenya. The two companies have been listed as respondents in the case.
According to the statement, Kipkemboi was in 2014, approached by a person known to him by the name Gikonyo Mwangi.
Mwangi asked him if he would join his company by the name Brinks Global Services.
He accepted the job offer at Brinks Global services where he got employed as the branch administrator.
Kipkemboi said that on five occasions he made trips to Burundi in Bujumbura to collect bank notes all amounting to 2 million dollars per trip.
He made four trips to Bujumbura in 2021 in the months of January, February, October and December.
Kipkemboi made his last trip to Bujumbura on February 15.
The agency established that the funds were being reshipped to London, without declaration of exiting Kenya. This raised reasonable suspicion of money laundering.
“We established that the respondents, while attempting to send the funds to London, UK, indicated that the origin of the funds is Kenya and concealed its origin which was Bujumbura, Burundi,” the agency said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
