An employee of the Nairobi County government, who is also the co-director of a popular club on Lang’ata Road, has been dealt a blow after the Court of Appeal froze his bank accounts and assets that had been flagged by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
Wilson Nashon Kanani, a director of Club 1824, suffered the setback after the appellate court blocked him from withdrawing the funds from three bank accounts and transferring the properties and high-end vehicles suspected to have been acquired through corruption.
Mr Kanani had opposed the application, saying he had fought for more than two years to prove he had legitimately acquired the properties and cars.
However, Court of Appeal judges Gatembu Kairu, Fred Ochieng’ and Aggrey Muchelule said the possibility that these assets could be moved or otherwise disposed of before the appeal is heard and determined presents a real risk that any success in the appeal would be rendered meaningless.
“The respondent’s assertion that the applicant had not proven the impossibility of recovery does not entirely negate this risk, especially considering the nature and value of the assets involved. We are satisfied that the applicant has demonstrated a risk of suffering irreparable loss,” said the judges.
The court added that the public interest in preserving assets suspected of having been acquired through corruption was a significant factor that weighed in favour of granting the injunction.
The EACC said Mr Kanani, the development control officer at City Hall, had acquired assets worth millions that did not match his gross monthly salary of Sh85,630.
His duties include regulating outdoor advertisements, monitoring and surveillance of all outdoor advertisements and calling advertisers to comply with approvals and payments for advertisements.
The EACC said Mr Kanani abused his position of trust by receiving revenue meant for the Nairobi County government through bank accounts held by his private companies and his spouse.
The commission said it concluded investigations and established that Mr Kanani and his companies had unexplained assets amounting to Sh643.2 million.
They include land, motor vehicles, cash recovered and cash deposits. Among the assets is an apartment in Nairobi valued at Sh6.5 million, a house in Busia valued at Sh11.2 million and land in Naivasha valued at Sh3.5 million.
EACC’s appeal
Mr Kanani successfully argued that the assets and funds in question had been legitimately acquired and High Court judge Nixon Sifuna dismissed the EACC’s case last November.
But the anti-graft body appealed against the decision, arguing that the assets were suspected to have been acquired through corruption and should be preserved pending the hearing of the appeal.
The EACC submitted that approximately Sh40 million held in the bank accounts had already been withdrawn following the High Court’s dismissal of the case.
The anti-graft body argued that the assets should be protected to ensure they were available when the appeal is heard and concluded.
EACC argued that if the injunction was not granted, the assets and money would be transferred, making it impossible to recover them even if the appeal was successful.
The anti-graft body added that if the injunction was granted and the appeal failed, Mr Kanani would still get his assets back.
The frozen assets are worth Sh643 million and include land, vehicles, and Sh898,000 in cash that was recovered from his house.
The assets were suspected to be the result of corrupt practices involving public funds.
Mr Kanani faulted the EACC saying its conduct had been unfair to him and had harmed his reputation.
He added that the investigations conducted were flawed and had caused him significant economic hardship.
Mr Kanani said the EACC had failed to prove its case in the trial court and that the appeal had little chance of success.
He maintained that the assets under investigation had legitimate sources and that the EACC’s suspicions were based on flawed reasoning and outdated evidence.
The City Hall official argued that it was also not in the public interest to restrict his businesses for more than two years while he was denied access to them.
He said that if the appeal was successful, the EACC would have recourse to recovery proceedings.
In his judgment in November last year, Justice Sifuna said Mr Kanani had satisfactorily explained that the assets were genuinely acquired as there was no evidence on record that Mr Kanani was corrupt or involved in corruption.
The judge noted that the only evidence linking Mr Kanani to the alleged corruption was a criminal case in which he was convicted, but he appealed against the decision and the sentence was quashed.
The judge said the stance taken by EACC that his salary was too meagre to justify the assets and funds in his accounts was a wrong yardstick.
Justice Sifuna said he begged to disagree that a person’s wealth should only pegged on his or her salary because there are possibilities of making income away from a pay slip.
“A keen public officer who invests his money will have more assets than an executive who spends his otherwise humongous salary on leisure and sin,” said the judge.
The EACC said Mr Kanani acquired four high-end motor vehicles - Toyota Land Cruiser V8, Mercedes Benz E 300, Mercedes Benz E350 and Toyota Alphard in a span of five years.
The anti-graft body further said it investigated his five bank accounts and found that he received cumulative deposits of Sh506 million between January 2016 and October 31, 2022.
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