Wilson Nashon Kanani, a development control officer for Nairobi County, his family, and businesses are worth at least Sh100 million when the value of their bank accounts, prestigious properties, residences, and high-end vehicles are tallied up.
Mr. Kanani’s two minor children have Sh3.56 million in their accounts, which is a lot considering that only 2.5% of all registered bank accounts have balances of more than Sh100,000.
It’s possible that he has his hands in the taxpayers’ cookie jar or is a shrewd businessman; the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) thinks the latter.
Following an appeal by the EACC, the anti-corruption division of the High Court in Nairobi yesterday froze 11 bank accounts owned by Mr. Kanani and his family.
High Court Judge Lady Justice Esther Maina on Tuesday granted orders sought by EACC under a Certificate Urgency freezing Sh48m held by Wilson Nashon Kanani, an employee of the County Government of Nairobi, to allow EACC to finalize the investigation of the employee’s unexplained wealth.
Mr Kanani, who earns a monthly net salary of Sh55,000 received suspicious Sh506,397,460 between January 2016 and October 2022, through bank accounts in his name, the name of companies associated with him, his family members including his spouse and his minor children.
Aside from his job at City Hall, he doubles up as the owner of the popular 1824 Club on Langata Road.
“The court has prohibited him (Kanani), his agents and servants from withdrawing, transferring, disposing of, wasting and/or in any other way dealing with funds held in his various bank accounts and from transferring, disposing of, wasting and/or in any other way dealing with two high-end motor vehicles,” said the judge.
According to EACC, Kanani’s duties at the county include regulation of outdoor advertisements, monitoring and surveillance of all outdoor advertisements and calling advertisers to comply with approvals and payments for advertisements.
Other assets linked to the accused include a house in Phenom Estate Langata, a residential house and rental premises in Busia, an apartment in Langata NHC and an apartment in Kahawa which are all suspected to have been acquired using proceeds of corruption.
“He is associated with five companies Wilman Auto Invests, Wilman Auto Invests (Logistics), Willy Walla International Limited, Wilcoreg Limited and Regineez Enterprises Limited which are reasonably suspected to have traded with the Nairobi City County Government,” EACC said in court documents.
