When Nancy Indoveria Kigunzu alias Mathe wa Ngaraappeared at JKIA Law Court over drug trafficking.[Edward Kiplimo, Standard]
The anti-corruption High Court has ordered Nancy Indoveria Kigunzi to forfeit Sh13.4 million that was confiscated from her house during the drug raid by the police.
Indoveria who is famously known as Mathe wa Ngara was dealt a major blow after Justice Esther Maina found that the money was proceeds of crime.
The money will however be wired from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) where it was held to the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) account at Kenya Commercial Bank instead of the Consolidated Fund at the Treasury.
Justice Maina contradicted Justice Nixon Sifuna who found that the money should not to go the agency but be surrendered to the Treasury.
She said that the money should be with ARA until such a time the fund which is provided under the proceeds of crime and anti-money laundering Act is put into operation.
Mathe wa Ngara was nabbed last year following a sting operation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
She was said to be the main supplier of cannabis sativa in Nairobi county and has an ongoing trial before the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) court.
The woman claimed that the case by the agency was premature as the criminal case had not been concluded.
Indoveria further argued that unless the lower court convicts her, then ARA had no power to pursue the amount collected from her house.
At the same time, she said that the application for forfeiture was illegal as the money in question was also an exhibit before the JKIA court.
She stated that if the High Court ordered that the money should be forfeited, then it would interfere with the criminal case.
However, Justice Maina said that she could not explain why she was holding so much money in her house.
According to the judge, the court was interested in knowing the source and legitimacy of her money and not about the criminal trial.
“First, as I have stated, it is not in dispute that this money which was all in cash was found kept in sacks in the residence of the respondent. Secondly, there is proof on a balance of probabilities that the same residence had some substance which when analysed by the government chemist turned out to be cannabis sativa,” she said.
Justice Maina said the DCI also found three persons who were in her house and believed to be mules used in trafficking.
She was of the view that Mathe wa Ngara never gave any plausible explanation of how and why she had kept such huge amounts of money in sacks instead of having them in bank accounts.
According to her, there was evidence to show that the money was directly linked to criminal activity.
“The only reasonable conclusion that this court can draw is that the money was kept in that manner so as to avoid detection by the authorities. In the absence of proof that the money was from a legitimate source, I find and I do so declare that the money was proceeds of crime,” said the Judge.
Source: The Standard
