CES trashes rumours of Adil’s detention at JKIA

The Central Equatoria State Minister of Information Andraga Severino Mabe has strongly dismissed the rumours that area governor Emmanuel Adil had been detained at Jomo Kenyata International Airport (JKIA) on Monday after he was found in possession of a large sum of money with no valid document.

According to some social media reports that went viral, Adil was apprehended by Kenyan officials at the airport on Monday, after he was found with $300,000 and Kshs 451, 000 Kshs in the busiest section of the airport.

It claimed the money was confiscated when the governor failed to submit a document proving the source and purpose of the funds.

According to the information, the authorities suspected the monies were plundered from the state coffers to be used to acquire illicit property.

When contacted over the rumours, Severino dismissed the allegations and described them as “unfounded and baseless.”

“Only some people can fabricate some unpleasant news. It is called gossip it is an informal news reporting matrix full of malice and bitterness. It is not true we could have even have shared it in the council of ministers but the governor was not arrested,” he said.

“The social media of Juba is full of rumours and full of bitterness and lies,” Severino added as he spoke to The City Review.

He said the governor’s trip to Nairobi was for official visits, saying that the governor can go wherever he wants.

 “I may be the only person in Central Equatoria who does not go with social media and one can say you are fatter than who and so on. In social media, they can multiply you to be even bigger, so these are allegations are unfounded,” he stressed.

Kenya blamed

The Sentry recently published a study accusing Kenya of having a poor financial tracking system to protect the real estate market, thus allowing corrupt officials from South Sudan to invest their ill-gotten fortune in the country.

“Kenya is a destination country for illicit South Sudanese funds, which have been moved into Kenya using Kenyan corporate structures, luxury properties, and banks” the report stated.

According to the Sentry’s investigation, numerous corrupt South Sudanese politicians keep their assets in Kenya via corporate structures, luxury houses, and banks.

“The Sentry has discovered multiple incidents of South Sudanese PEPs purchasing luxurious real estate in Kenya for themselves or their families,” it continued. This could indicate that the sources of wealth and cash are not being examined as part of the Kenyan real estate sectors due diligence processes.”

The report also accused several Kenyan residents, including political leaders, of cooperating with corrupt officials in the region to set up enterprises that would make it easier for them to transport illicit funds within the region.

In October 2021, UN human rights accused South Sudanese officials of plundering millions of dollars from the country’s resources, a report dismissed by Minister of Cabinet Affairs Dr Martin Elia Lomuro as an edifice of the country’s adversaries.

The Kenyan anti-corruption court unfroze the account of Dr. Elia in September after Kenya’s Asset Recovery ordered for the freezing of the minister account with the Cooperative Bank of Kenya on June 4, on suspicion of money laundering.

The anti-corruption court Judge Cecilia Githua then ordered for the lifting of the ban on Elia’s account when the complainant, Kenya Asset Recovery, was satisfied with the explanation and documents the minister provided for the sources of his funds.