Kenya: Court of Appeal Rejects Ara Bid to Seize Sh36mn Held in I&m Account

What the report says

The Kenyan Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by the Assets Recovery Agency to confiscate about $274,369, or Sh36 million, held in an I&M Bank account belonging to EIS Afrika Group Limited. The ruling, reported by Capital FM and carried by AllAfrica, upheld an earlier High Court decision that said the agency had not presented enough evidence to show the money was proceeds of crime.

The dispute began in March 2024 after EIS Afrika received a $350,000 foreign transfer. ARA froze the account and sought forfeiture under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, saying the funds may have been linked to money laundering. EIS Afrika, which says it has an affiliate in Burundi, told the court the money was tied to a World Bank-funded tender to build and install facilities at the Kavimvira Border Post, and that the funds were routed through Kenya to pay for vehicles and equipment bought in Dubai.

According to the report, the company backed its account of the transactions with tender papers, invoices and correspondence. The High Court in June 2025 found ARA had not produced concrete proof, and the Court of Appeal agreed that suspicion alone, or unusual international transfers, was not enough to establish criminal proceeds.

The appellate judges also questioned weaknesses in ARA’s evidence, including an incorrect description of alleged cash withdrawals, reliance on an unverified email address and an unauthenticated cyber-forensic report. The decision is significant because it reinforces the evidentiary threshold required before funds can be seized under anti-money-laundering law.