BY SAM ALFAN.
Assets Recovery Agency now wants two Toyotas belonging to Nairobi businesswoman and suspected drug dealer Joyce Akinyi forfeited to the government.
In the petition, the agency wants Toyota crown and Toyota DBA seized by the government saying they are believed to be proceeds of crime.
Last year, Justice Mumbi Ngugi ordered Akinyi to surrender the two vehicles to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Kiambu Road, together with the logbooks.
The judge had further directed the Director General of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to register a caveat against the records of each vehicle.
“There is imminent danger that the respondent shall dispose, dissipate or transfer the said assets as there was no court order currently preserving the said assets,” said the Agency.
ARA commenced investigations to recover proceeds of crime accrued by Akinyi on illegitimate trafficking and trading in narcotic drugs after she was arrested and charged.
She and two others were charged at a Jomo Kenyatta International Airport court on July 15, 2019 after a search was conducted at her residence at Deep West Resort Bar in Nairobi West and the police recovered some 1,050 grams of heroin with a street value of Sh3.09 million.
“Unless this honourable court grants the orders sought, the economic advantage derived from the commission of crimes will continue to benefit a few to the disadvantage of the general public interest,” ARA submitted.
It is alleged that during investigations looked into the activities of Akinyi’s two bank accounts held at Stanbic bank to ascertain whether the funds they held were indeed proceeds of crime.
According to ARA, both accounts received suspicious huge sums of cash and cheque deposits that indicate activities of money laundering.
Investigations further established that the deposits were made in tranches below one million shillings to evade the reporting threshold as per the Central Bank of Kenya prudential guidelines for an account holder to declare the source of the money.
During her arrest on July 13, 2019 at the resort, more items were seized including an East African passport in the name of Ochieng Joyce Akinyi, one Kenyan passport in the name of Jackline Glory Achieng, three Congolese passports in the names of Kambere Raha Eveline, Kambura Mape Marline and Musanrishay kalala Paulin, Tanita digital scale and a total cash coin in Uganda Shillings of Sh 20,000.
