KCB bid to reopen trial of ex-staff in Sh70m fraud suit flops

A KCB branch in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By JOSEPH WANGUI
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Summary

• KCB Group has lost an attempt to reopen a decade-old fraud case against its former operations manager who was accused of embezzling over Sh70 million.
• The bank wanted Justice David Majanja to review, vary or set aside his ruling dated February 7, 2020, after the lender failed to prosecute the suit for nearly 10 years.
• It also wanted reinstatement of interim orders issued in 2010 freezing accounts and restraining the former manager, Anne Kajuju together with 24 others, from transferring or dealing with properties acquired as a result of the alleged fraudulent conduct.

KCB Group has lost an attempt to reopen a decade-old fraud case against its former operations manager who was accused of embezzling over Sh70 million.

The bank wanted Justice David Majanja to review, vary or set aside his ruling dated February 7, 2020, after the lender failed to prosecute the suit for nearly 10 years.

It also wanted reinstatement of interim orders issued in 2010 freezing accounts and restraining the former manager, Anne Kajuju together with 24 others, from transferring or dealing with properties acquired as a result of the alleged fraudulent conduct.

In the application, KCB indicated that it had a valid claim against the 25 defendants involving the loss of Sh70 million.

However, Justice Majanja declined to grant the requests saying the bank, being the claimant, was afforded the right to a fair hearing and it bore a greater responsibility to ensure that it took steps to prosecute the suit.

“That fact that the suit was based on the fraud of Sh70 million clearly buttressed that responsibility on the plaintiff and its counsel and thus the nature of the case cannot be a ground to excuse tardiness,” said the judge.

He ruled that by applying for reinstatement of the case, the bank was calling on the court to review the exercise of the discretion in dismissing the suit.

The court found that the bank had without an explanation delayed the trial of the case that was filed in 2009.

Ms Anne Kajuju was alleged to have been the mastermind of a scheme in which Sh73 million was paid out through cheques stolen from the bank.

Ms Kajuju was accused that on diverse dates between November 3, 2008 and March 4, 2009, she fraudulently and without authority, signed various bankers cheques which were in her custody for varying amounts payable to several persons, among them her three children, husband, sister and her wedding’s best man.