Justice Mumbi Ngugi on Wednesday dealt a blow to the Ngirita family of the infamous National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.
She ordered three family members – Lucy Ngirita, Phyllis Ngirita and Jeremiah Ngirita – to surrender multimillion property in their names to the State.
Justice Ngugi said that without a doubt the property had been acquired through criminal proceeds.
“Between them, they received approximately Sh400 million from NYS and used some of the money to acquire the properties which constitute proceeds of crime. Evidence shows that on the periods they received the money, they went on a spending spree to hide their theft,” she ruled.
Her ruling came after the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) presented a case before her with a demonstration of failure by the three suspects to account how they acquired the property spread through Naivasha, Nakuru and Kitale.
The three members of Ngirita family will now surrender to the State a high-end Toyota Landcruiser V8, a two-acre piece of land in Kitale, half an acre in Naivasha, a quarter acre in Nakuru and Njoro as well as another piece of land in Naivasha.
For Phyllis, she was ordered to also forfeit Ksh800,000 in her account which will be transferred to Opportunity International Wedco Ltd to recover a loan she had taken to purchase a vehicle.
Justice Ngugi cited that it was mindboggling to imagine how the family accumulated multimillion wealth in a short period.
“Perhaps there are gifted families in Kenya who are entrepreneurs extraordinaire who can in their individual capacities and through their businesses transact business with a State entity in a brief two-year period and get Sh400 million, out of which Sh133 million is paid in a single day,” she indicated in her judgment.
ARA’s State Counsel Peter Ngumi told the court that the three Ngirita’s were paid a total of Ksh465 million in their respective accounts by NYS.
Wittingly, they quickly transferred the monies to proxy companies which they used to buy property a way to cover their tracks.
He detailed that each of them got Ksh133 million for the NYS pay in a day in the alleged business with the government entity between 2015 and 2018.
