The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) seeking to have over KSh 537 million linked to former Governor Sonko remain frozen.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the court concurred with the previous High Court ruling which had ordered the accounts to be unfrozen, stating that the appeal by ARA lacked substantial grounds.
ARA went back to court in a bid to stop the implementation of the High Court ruling, stating that according to the law, the accounts should remain frozen until the case is heard and determined.
However, the court did not agree with ARA, stating that there was nothing in the High Court ruling which needed to be stopped, as the case had already been dismissed. According to the court, “There is nothing arising out of the High Court judgment… to enforce.”
The decision was made in October 2025, when the High Court ruled that ARA had failed to provide enough evidence for their claims of money laundering. As a result of this, the court did not see the need to continue freezing the accounts.
These accounts, totaling more than KSh 537 million, had been frozen as part of investigations into the illegal activities.
With this decision, Sonko will now access the money, thus ending the legal push by ARA to have the money frozen. Sonko has been coming and going to the courts since he was ousted from office in 2020.
