Oyombra sues bank over accounts freeze

What you need to know:

  • The bank closed his personal account after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) obtained court orders from Kibera Law Courts.
  • Mr Oyombra said, in his court papers that on November 16, he went to the bank to extend the rate of his fixed deposit account and withdraw funds for a project he is undertaking in Kisumu.

A Kenyan adversely mentioned in the infamous ‘chicken’ scandal has sued a bank for freezing his accounts.

Mr Trevy James Oyombra claims that Oriental Commercial Bank Ltd has closed his accounts at its Westlands branch, Nairobi without a valid court order.

Mr Oyombra, who is also the director PIC Centre Ltd, has been operating a personal and fixed deposit accounts with the bank for one and a half years.

The bank closed his personal account after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) obtained court orders from Kibera Law Courts.

His problems started when his name featured prominently in the ongoing trial in a UK court where it is alleged he paid senior officials of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission to help his client win lucrative printing contracts.

Mr Oyombra said, in his court papers that on November 16, he went to the bank to extend the rate of his fixed deposit account and withdraw funds for a project he is undertaking in Kisumu. It was then that the bank’s risk manager told him he could not access any of his personal accounts since they had been frozen.

COURT ORDER

“I was informed that the bank had frozen my accounts pursuant to a court order served to them by officers from EACC,” said Mr Oyombra. He said the bank declined to give him a copy of the orders. “I went to Kibera Law Courts and obtained the orders which only authorised investigations, inspection, lifting of copies of his statements and account opening documents among others,” he said.

He said even if the order was meant to freeze his accounts, the same could not be extended to PIC Centre Ltd merely because he is the director.