The High Court of Kenya has upheld an order to freeze the assets of Felicien Kabuga, a Rwandan tycoon suspected of financing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, until a United Nations court concludes his trial. The court ruled against Kabuga’s family’s request to lift the preservation orders issued in 2008, which had frozen his multi-million shilling house in Nairobi. The property, known as House no.6 on LR.no.1/1154, was registered under Kabuga and his late wife Mukazitoni Josephine's names. The orders mean that rent income generated from the property will continue being deposited in a government’s account until the conclusion of Kabuga's case at the UN tribunal.
The date of arrest and a red cross are seen written on the face of Felicien Kabuga, one of the key suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, on a wanted poster at the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit office in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 19, 2020.
Justice Esther Maina, of the Anti-Corruption division, endorsed the 2008 preservation orders, which were issued by Judge Muga Apondi (retired), following an application by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General was enforcing resolutions for member states of the UN to assist in tracing suspects in the Rwanda genocide case. Kabuga was a fugitive when the orders were issued in 2008 but was later arrested by French authorities in May 2020 near Paris. He is currently on trial before a UN tribunal at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands over accusations of financing and promoting mass killings in Rwanda in 1994.
The court papers indicate that the house generates a monthly rental income of Sh84,000, which was being collected by Kabuga’s agents and remitted to him before the case was filed in 2008. Initially, Kenya Trust Company Ltd collected the rent and deposited it into Kabuga's account at the Commercial Bank of Africa (now trading as NCBA Bank), on Wabera Street in Nairobi. However, the account was later closed, and the company started wiring Sh296,000 quarterly to an account owned by Kabuga’s wife in Belgium.
Kabuga’s wife, who passed away in 2017 in Belgium, argued in her response filed in court before her death that the Kenyan government had not proven that the property was acquired through proceeds of crime or was unlawfully acquired. However, she also acknowledged that Mr Kabuga used the income generated from the property to avoid arrest and interfere with the prosecution's witnesses.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, informed the court last month that Kabuga had declined to respond to or acknowledge receipt of the court papers, and the proceedings continued without his input. Kabuga’s wife had also argued in court that there was evidence suggesting that Kabuga had entered Kenya, applied for residency status and opened a bank account, which Kenya denied.
In conclusion, the High Court of Kenya's decision to uphold the preservation orders on Kabuga's assets is a significant development in the case against the Rwandan tycoon accused of financing the 1994 genocide. The decision ensures that the rent income generated from the property will continue being deposited in a government’s account until the conclusion of his case at the UN tribunal. The ruling is an important step towards holding those responsible for the genocide accountable and providing justice for the victims and their families.