High Court Freezes Ksh.1.2 Billion Assets Belonging To Lands Ministry Official

 

An undated image of Nicholas Owino Ochieno

By Citizen Reporter

The High Court has issued orders freezing assets worth Ksh.1.2 billion belonging to one Nicholas Owino Ochieno, a senior assistant director at the Ministry of Lands, pending the determination of a suit filed by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

EACC believes that Ochieno dubiously acquired the Ksh.1,206,851,274 valued assets in his capacity as a Ministry of Lands official on diverse dates between January 2003 and November 2018.

Ochieno was first employed at the Ministry as a valuer in 1996 before rising through the ranks to become a Principal Valuer and later the Senior Assistant Director in charge of Valuation, a position he has held since 2016.

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According to EACC, Ochieno abused his office by entering into contracts with private entities for services he was employed and paid to provide at the Ministry.

"He is reasonably suspected of corrupt conduct by using privileged official information at the Ministry for financial gain through companies associated with him namely; Ternic Valuers Limited and Ternic Enterprises Limited thus compromising his public or official duties in favour of his personal interests," EACC said in a statement.

In the period under review, Ochieno is said to have acquired prime parcels of land across the country valued at Ksh.694,670,000, transacted Ksh.497,393,274 via his bank accounts and M-Pesa and purchased three posh vehicles, a BMW, Volkswagen and Toyota Land Cruiser, jointly valued at Ksh.10,500,000.

The parcels of land are distributed across the country as follows, a Karen residence valued at Ksh.80 million Thome Estate Apartments valued at Ksh.130 million an undeveloped plot in Parklands worth Ksh.100 million and a commercial building in Ugunja valued at Ksh.190 million.

The suspect is also said to have acquired two parcels of land in Kisumu and two more in Lolwe estate valued at Ksh.53 million and Ksh.55 million respectively.

He also owns a house in Mirema worth Ksh.23 million and another apartment block in Kisumu valued at Ksh.15.5 million.

In order to avoid detection, EACC says that Ochieno used his wife and brother, Terry Muthoni Maina and Richard Omondi Ochiel, as conduits to receive, hold and conceal the funds.

"The matter came up for mention on 24th October 2022 to confirm whether the Defendants have filed responses to both the EACC Injunction Application and the main recovery suit dated 15th June 2022," said EACC.

"EACC informed the Court that it has never been served with any responses by the Defendants from the time the matter was filed on 15th June 2022. The Advocate for the Defendants confirmed that they were yet to respond and sought adjournment for 21 more days to comply."

The case will be mentioned on November 11, 2022.