This archive report was first published on 10 September 2019.
On September 10, 2019, Africa Spirits Limited (ASL) filed a case in court under a certificate of urgency to lift orders issued by Kiambu Chief Magistrate on August 16, 2019, freezing the bank accounts of nine companies associated with billionaire businessman Humphrey Kariuki.
The frozen accounts are held at the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) and the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), and ASL is seeking to have them unfrozen.
Lawyer Cecil Miller, representing ASL, argued that the orders issued by the Kiambu court are illegal as the affected parties were not included in the case by the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji.
Miller told the court that the orders granted freezing the nine accounts are to last for 90 days and urged the court to stay the orders to enable ASL to mitigate the ruinous, prejudicial and detrimental harm, loss and damages to the companies whose accounts have been preserved.
ASL has named Mr. Haji and the Inspector-General of Police as respondents and has also named Wow Beverages, NBK, KCB, the chief magistrate at Milimani, the chief magistrate at Kiambu, and the chief magistrate at Thika as interested parties.
