Counties
Why Former Nairobi County Finance Boss Will Pay Ksh.317M to the Government
He was convicted in a case filled by the EACC in a bid to recover Sh872 million from the former chief finance officer (CFO) on grounds that his accumulated wealth did not tally with his known legitimate sources of income.
Former Nairobi County Chief Finance Officer Jimmy Kiamba was ordered to pay the government Sh282 million by a Nairobi Court.
Further to this, Kiamba is required to pay an additional Sh35 million to the government, failure to which he will forfeit his house in Runda Water Estate, Nairobi.
The judgement was arrived after the court established that the convicted is in possession of unexplained assets.
While delivering the judgement, Lady Justice Hedwig Ong’udi ruled that Jimmy Kiamba could not explain how he acquired his massive wealth, which the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) said was looted from the county coffers.
“My analysis of evidence proves that the EACC established that the huge cash deposits in his accounts were proceeds of economic crimes and constitute unexplained assets which must be forfeited to the state,” the judge ruled.
The case was filled by the EACC in a bid to recover Sh872 million from the former chief finance officer (CFO) on grounds that his accumulated wealth did not tally with his known legitimate sources of income.
In its argument, the EACC submitted that Kiamba’s salary between 2009 and 2015 totalled to Sh5.8 million and wondered how he ended up with over Sh1 billion in cash and assets during his tenure as CFO between 2013 and 2015.
The commission, through Philip Kagucia, said it investigated Mr Kiamba’s 11 accounts in eight banks and obtained bank statements for the accounts and compared the amounts deposited and his salary. It is through this investigation that the commission noted huge inter-account transfers.
Mr. Kiamba is said to have deposited more than Sh400 million between January and November 2014 despite earning a monthly salary of Sh85,000 as City Hall CFO. Evidence provided showed that he used several people at City Hall to make deposits in his accounts including Joseph Njoroge, his driver.
Mr Njoroge made total deposits of Sh66.8 million, while former head of treasury at City Hall Stephen Osiro made total deposits of Sh4.1 million.
In his defense to explain the source of the huge deposits, Kiamba told the court that he was in engaged in several other businesses apart from employment including farming, hotel business, transport, rental income as well as water business, while interior design and beauty parlor were his wife’s. This, as narrated in court, amounted as follows: Cattle revenue (Ksh.21,971,810), Wheat revenue (Ksh.17,094,610), maize revenue (Ksh.12,478,430), landed property (Ksh.35,000,000), Kwamga Mboya advocates (Ksh.300,000), totaling Ksh.317,648,604.
However, the judge argued that it was impossible to know how much had been injected in the transport business and therefore the house, which he allegedly bought at Sh35 million, fell under the category of unexplained assets.
It is after this analysis that the court ruled that EACC had established on a balance of probability that the cash deposits which Kiamba tried to explain through the revenue collection constituted unexplained assets as defined under Section 2 of ACECA and should be forfeited to the State.
“I therefore declare that the total sum of the, money indicated to be unexplained assets,” ruled Justice Hedwig Ogundi.
