Two lawyers who were involved in the sale of a property in which former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka claims was defrauded of Sh23 million will not be arrested.
This follows an orderly High Court Justice Msagha Mbogholi who instructed the police not to arrest Tomothy Isaac Bryantand Gitonga Gerry Graham.
A magistrate had ordered the bank accounts of the two lawyers to be frozen as part of the investigations police were conducting to establish how the property belonging to the Kenya Youth Hostel Association was sold.
Timothy and Gitonga acted for the Kenya Youth Hostel Association in the sale of its four storey property along Ralph Bunche Road in Nairobi's Community area. The property was allegedly sold for Sh125 million.
The lawyers, acting on the instruction of two of the associations' trustees —Mutavi Maseki and Livingstone Sane—sold the property and banked the money in a private account at Cooperative Bank instead of the youth hostel's account.
A company associated with Kalonzo—Desiral Company limited—had expressed interest in buying the property for Sh130 million. The company paid Sh23 million into the association's accounts and was given time to clear the balance of Sh107 million.
However, the trustees failed to inform Desiral that they had already sold the property to another company, Superiorfone Communications which offered Sh125 million.
Desiral director Jane Muasya claims Maseki and Sane deliberately concealed the fact that they had already sold the property and went ahead to receive the Sh23million deposit even though they were aware they could not complete the sale agreement.
A manager at KYHA said part of the Sh23 million was paid before the sale agreement between Desiral and the association was executed and and soon afterwards, on February 2013.
Desiral now wants the court to block Superiorfone from paying the balance of the purchase price to the trustees, arguing that if the whole amount is paid, the firm is likely to lose its deposited sum.
Court documents related to the case indicate that Kalonzo, who once served as the patron of the youth hostel association used the association's accounts as a political fund.
Kalonzo is said to have held political meetings at the hostel and frequently withdrew money from the association's account which he would then distribute to his supporters.
One of the trustees—Maseki — claimed in his affidavit that Kalonzo used the association's account to 'launder money' for his campaigns during the last elections.
Maseki said the money was withdrawn by the association’s treasurer Andrew Kwale and manager Ignatius Mutua and handed over to Kalonzo to finance his campaigns.
In the fresh suit lodged by Nzamba Kitonga, the two lawyers said freezing their accounts was unreasonable and an abuse of the court process.
Desiral which is represented by Fred Ojiambo has also sought to be joined in the lawyers' suit as an interested party to safeguard its interest.
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