Sep 21, 2021 — In attempts to fight corruption and money laundering, the Cooperative Bank of Kenya has come to terms with the South Sudan’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Hon. Martin Elia Lomuro.
According to the Kenyan bank, the South Sudanese minister has declared the source of his controversial money which were frozen in the Kenyan bank three months ago.
A Kenyan Anti-corruption court judge Cecilia Githua determined that the source of Mr. Elia’s over $300, 000 that was sitting in his Cooperative Bank of Kenya are his income and rent money from his property in Juba and therefore Cecilia lifted the freeze.
“The applicant (Assets Recovery Agency) is satisfied with the explanation provided by the respondent (Martin Elia Lomuro) on the source of funds. The applications dated June 2, 2021, and July 6, 2021, are compromised and the order issued on June 4, 2021 is rescinded,” the court ruled.
The ban was imposed on Mr. Elia’s bank accounts after an Assets Recovery Agency submitted investigative reports to the bank suggesting that Mr. Elia was conducting malicious money transfers between multiple countries using the Kenyan bank as his middle ground for illegal transactions..
The Asset Recovery Agency proved their allegations before a Kenyan court in June in which they established that Mr. Elia might have been involved in money laundering schemes across multiple jurisdictions which included a chain of money transfer from South Sudan to Kenya and then to the United Kingdom for unknown reasons.
ARA initially argued before the court that Mr. Elias’ transactions were illegitimate and that arose their suspicions.
The agency believed that a freeze would force Mr. Elia to come forward to explain himself and soon thereafter the outspoken South Sudanese minister rushed to Kenya to open a court case against the ARA.
In his justification Elias stressed that the case against him was a case against his country and that brings shame not only to himself but to South Sudan and East Africa which he claims he represents.
“The entire Republic of South Sudan has been tarnished and put in the dock that its most senior minister, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, who is well known and respected in the country, the East African community, the African Union and the whole international community, is a money launderer,” Lomuro said.
In addition, Elia justified that the freeze of his money caused severe stress and inconvenience to his family as he couldn’t send money to his wife Rejah who is suffering from a complicated heart disease that requires constant hospitalization.
He further stressed that due to the freeze, he was not able to pay rents and buy food for his family which resides in Nairobi, Kenya.
Upon hearing Mr. Elias’ dire situation, the Kenyan female judge, Cecilia Githua, sympathized and ordered the Cooperative Bank of Kenya to uplift the freeze with immediate effect.
