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Three Tell Court of Anyona's Directive On Bank Account

Details

Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 06:37

Three officials of a women's group embroiled in a dispute over the burial of former Kitutu Masaba MP George Anyona were barred from accessing an account in which Sh1.06 million was banked.

The three, in a sworn affidavit they filed at a Kisii court yesterday, said their attempts to know the balance and status of their account were blocked by the National Bank's Kisii branch when they failed to produce a passbook. The trio, Carren Onkoba, chairlady; Kennedy Ndege, secretary; and Yunuke Onkoba, treasurer, state that they banked Sh1 million in the account. They say that the late Anyona, who was their patron, had written to the same bank on May 30, 1995, alerting it about changes in the account's signatories. Annexed in the affidavit are copies of Mr Anyona's letter to the bank's then manager, Mr J.B. Munyeki. The bank's accountant, Mr A. Nzuki, confirms receipt of Mr Anyona's letter.

Mrs Onkoba and her group say that attempts to have the funds shared out were discouraged by Mr Anyona who insisted that the money be left intact to earn interest.

They said that while addressing the group at Tombe playground on December 22, 1997, Mr Anyona produced bank statements indicating that the money and interest totalled Sh1,160,820.70. The officials state that they never withdrew and now want the bank to avail details of who withdrew their cash. They say they a availed all required documents to the bank as new signatories but came to learn later that the funds had been withdrawn and the account closed.

The officials filed their defense in a case they have been sued by the late Anyona's elder brother Stephenson Mageto. An earlier burial injunction granted by the court to Mr Mageto stopping his brother's burial was vacated last week creating room for the late lawmaker's burial. By yesterday no plans had been put in place for Anyona's burial.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr Mageto were fruitless, as he could not be reached. The body is lying at Nyangena mortuary.