Ksh3.4M needed at son’s school, Ngirita cries in court over inability to access frozen money | VIDEO

One of the suspects in NYS graft case, Phyllis Njeri Ngirita, broke down and cried at the Milimani Law Courts on Thursday, January 23, after she was told that she will have to wait for 17 days to know whether she will be allowed to withdraw Ksh800, 000 from her frozen bank account, or not.

Njeri, through her lawyer, Evans Ondieki, had applied to be allowed to withdraw the said-amount, saying it was to be used in paying her son’s school fees.

Njeri claims she owes her son’s school, Pembroke House School in Gilgil, Ksh3.4 million in unpaid fees.

“I have been subjected to untold suffering since my KCB account in Gilgil was frozen in 2018,” said Njeri.

“The [freezing] order has caused undue hardship to my family and paralysed the education of my children,” Njeri said in her affidavit filed at the Milimani Law Courts on Thursday.

Her application was to be heard on Thursday, January 23, by Justice Mumbi Ngugi, but the judge pushed back the hearing date by two weeks after the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) sought seven days to respond to Njeri’s application.

Justice Mumbi Ngugi directed that the case be heard on February 10, 2020.

Njeri, who owns Njewanga Enterprises, is accused of receiving money to the tune of millions of shillings for controversial NYS tenders that led to the loss of taxpayers’ money.

The suspect, who is out on bond, is also accused of deliberately avoiding to pay corporation tax amounting to Ksh20 million.

Njeri was charged alongside her mother, Lucy Wambui, sister Anne Ngirita, and brother, Jeremiah Gichina.

Njeri says, in the application, that Pembroke House School has stated it won’t allow her son in school should she fail to pay his school fees amounting to Ksh3.4 million.

She claims the Ksh800, 000 that is locked up in her bank account “is the only money I have, and that I got it from a loan facility”.