Court orders ex-Kilifi land registrar to forfeit Sh426.8m in unexplained assets
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Kenya's High Court has ordered a former Kilifi Principal Land Registrar, his wife and associated companies to forfeit assets worth Sh426.8 million to the state after they failed to satisfactorily explain how the wealth was acquired.
The High Court has ordered a former Kilifi Principal Land Registrar and his associates to forfeit assets worth Sh426.8 million to the government after finding that they failed to satisfactorily explain how the wealth was acquired.
Justice Benjamin Musyoki, sitting at the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Court, issued the forfeiture orders in a judgment delivered on September 18, 2026, following proceedings initiated by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The assets are linked to former land registrar Felix Mecha Nyakundi, his wife Stellah Nyaboke Otwori and companies associated with the family. They include cash held in bank and M-Pesa accounts, properties in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kilifi counties, motor vehicles and cash recovered during a search operation.
The court found that the defendants had failed to satisfactorily account for the disproportion between the assets they acquired and their known legitimate sources of income, and the EACC moved to court under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act to recover the wealth.
The commission said its investigations covered the period between January 2013 and March 2024, during which the defendants acquired assets cumulatively valued at more than Sh771 million. Nyakundi's gross monthly salary over the same period ranged from Sh69,660 in 2013 to Sh115,630 in 2024, while the defendants were able to satisfactorily explain the acquisition of assets valued at Sh58.17 million.