Former Youth and Gender Affairs Principal Secretary Lillian Omollo was on Friday allowed to withdraw Sh2 million from her frozen bank account to cater for living expenses granted access to her bank accounts which are suspected to be holding the loot from the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.
She had asked the court to compel banks to release Sh6.8 million from her accounts to pay fees, buy food, fuel her Mercedes and cater for other bills.
Yesterday, Anti-Corruption Court judge Hedwig Ong’udi directed the bank to release Sh2 million and barred Omollo from making a similar application in the future.
In her application, Omollo said she wanted Sh6.8 million from which Sh5.2 million would pay fees for her children. Sh139,800 would pay fees for three dependents and Sh219,000 for wages for six domestic workers.
“There is a lot of room for her to adjust her lifestyle to fit into her current financial status given that there is high public interest in the money from NYS which led her to be charged with a criminal offence, and which cannot just be wished away,” Ong’undi ruled.
Ong’udi noted that Omollo had stated that she owned a farm, and therefore can use it to sustain her lifestyle instead of asking the court to unfreeze her accounts while a case is still pending to compel her forfeit her wealth to the State.
The Assets Recovery Agency sought to recover part of the former PS’s wealth suspected to have been acquired as proceeds of crime. The agency obtained orders freezing the former PS ten accounts registered in the names of Sahara Consultants, Lidi Holdings Ltd, Lidi Estates Ltd, Stephanie Marigu Sheela Wangari and Shalom Malaika.
According to the investigator, all ten accounts registered by Omollo received huge deposits between 2016 and 2018 at the time she was the PS.
Fair deal or not?
The decision has been met with mixed reactions from Kenyans online.