The Assets Recovery Agency has announced that it has recovered Sh 1.8 B from the National Youth Service Scandals (NYS).

According to the agencies Director, Muthoni Kimani,  Sh1.3 billion was recovered from the NYS scandal season one and Sh500 million from the second one.

Ms Muthoni said that the recovery process is quite complex especially in cases where money has been stashed outside the country, but the agencies efforts to have bank accounts of the suspects frozen have gone a long way in bringing the process to fruition.

“Ours is to follow the money trail and see who benefited directly or indirectly from the proceeds of corruption and take them to court. The idea about freezing assets enables us to disrupt and dismantle cartels,” she said.

AGENCY DECLARES NGIRITA’S ASSETS AS “PROCEEDS OF CRIME” 

The agency is also targeting properties owned by the Ngirita family, who are among the suspects charged with NYS graft season 2.

The agency moved to court last week seeking orders to freeze and confiscate the family’s assets, which include parcels of land and vehicles belonging to three members of the Ngirita family members; Lucy Wambui Ngirita, her son Jeremiah Gichini Ngirita and daughter Phyllis Njeri.

According to court documents filed by the Assets Recovery Agency, Wambui allegedly pocketed KSh 109 million which was allegedly wired to her company, Ngiwaco Enterprises,’ bank account at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), whereas her daughter Njeri received KSh 57 million also sent to a personal bank account at the same bank. The preliminary investigations also revealed Gichini received KSh 72.2 million from the alleged NYS loot.

Sh1.6 billion and 8billion was lost NYS scandals one (?2016)  and two (2018) respectively.