Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki has been handed a reprieve after a Nairobi court lifted a directive seeking to freeze his accounts and properties.
On Thursday, Milimani Resident Magistrate Muthoni Nzibe stayed orders baring the freezing of movable property belonging to companies associated with the tycoon, pending conclusion of an investigation being carried out by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
According to Kariuki's legal team, the Director of Public Prosecution's (DPP) move could have affected the performance of the business associated with the tycoon, yet he had not been found guilty of tax evasion.
The businessman, Wow Beverages Limited and Africa Spirits Limited had filed an application seeking to stop the process after the DPP obtained the directive from the court.
The defense argued that the directive to freeze the company's assets and accounts would have crippled and ruined the operations of the firms if they could have been maintained.
“The application dated August 9,2019 was deliberately made in bad faith and with malice, as the applicant having become aware that the respondents ( Humphrey Kariuki , Africa Spirits Limited and Wow Beverages Limited) did not take plea on August 9 and that the said plea had been deferred to August 19, moved to the seize and preserve all their accounts and movable assets so that the respondents would be unable to post bond or pay cash bail,” read part of the submission from the defense as quoted by Capital FM.