Kenyan College Student Seeks Unfreezing of Her Sh121 Million Account

College student Felesta Nyamathira Njoroge has moved to court to challenge the freezing of her bank account.

Last week, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) obtained an order to freeze Sh121 million held in the 21-year-old’s account at Co-operative Bank.

High Court judge Esther Maina allowed the agency to freeze the account for 90 days pending the conclusion of investigations.

“Preservation orders be and are hereby issued prohibiting the respondent, her employees, agents, servants or any other persons acting on their behalf from transacting, withdrawing, transferring or dealing in any manner howsoever in respect of any profits or benefits derived or accrued from the funds specified,” the order reads.

Felesta, a student at Nairobi Technical Institute (NTTI), has filed an application through lawyer Thomas Maosa seeking to have the freezing order lifted.

She avers that ARA obtained “sweeping and radical orders” against her, adding that has the right to engage in business as allowed in the Constitution.

“The respondent obtained sweeping and radical orders against me without making any material disclosure as to whether financial due process was not adhered to in the transfer of the funds to me,” Felesta says in an affidavit.

ARA suspects Felesta, who claims to have received the millions as a gift from her Belgian boyfriend Merc De Mesel, is part of a money-laundering syndicate involving foreigners.

Authorities established that the money was deposited in the account in four transactions between August 4th and August 6th, 2021. The account was opened two days before the huge deposits were made.

“There are reasonable grounds to suspect the funds held in the account at Co-operative Bank in the name of the respondent, are illicit funds in which the respondent is involved in a money-laundering scheme, designed to conceal and disguise the nature, source location, and movement of the funds,” ARA says in court documents.