The Kenyan High Court on Thursday, April 27, upheld a 2008 decision to freeze a property owned by Felicien Kabuga, who is on trial for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, according to Kenyan media reports. Kabuga is being tried by the International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, a UN court. Located in Kilimani, an upmarket neighbourhood of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the property is in an estate called Spanish Villas, and reports indicate that for years, Kabuga received money from its rental at least until 2008. By then, Kabuga had been a fugitive for at least 14 years, having been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which tried masterminds of the Genocide against the Tutsi, but has since wound up its activities. Kenyan prosecutors said Kabuga, who was a fugitive at the time, had collected rent from the house and used the money to avoid arrest. The ICTR prosecutor also said Kabuga had entered Kenya, applied for residency status and opened a bank account – allegations the Kenyan government denied. Kabuga, infamously known as the genocide financier, was arrested in France in May 2020, after 23 years on the run. He had been indicted by the UN tribunal in 1997 on seven counts of genocide. ALSO READ: Kabuga participated in hate speech rallies alongside Mugesera, Ngirumpatse - New witness Kabuga and his wife Josephine Mukazitoni are the registered owners of the luxurious property, located along Lenana Road in Nairobi. According to court papers, the house’s monthly income is Ksh84,000 (approx. Rwf690,000) and until the 2008 ruling, the money was collected by Kabuga’s agents, who in turn remitted it to him. Initially, the rental income was collected by a firm called Kenya Trust Company Ltd, which would deposit it in Kabuga's account at the Commercial Bank of Africa (now trading as NCBA Bank), on Wabera Street in Nairobi. That account was later closed and Kenya Trust Company Ltd started wiring Ksh296,000 (Rwf 2.4 million) on quarterly basis to another account owned by Mukazitoni in Belgium. His family have petitioned court to lift the freeze, after the Genocide mastermind was arrested. ALSO READ: Kabuga rewarded Interahamwe for killing Tutsi – witness It is believed that Kabuga, a wealthy businessman who enjoyed state patronage before 1994, had other revenue streams in the neighbouring country and other parts of the world. Before her death in 2017 in Belgium, Mukazitoni had requested the Kenyan court to lift the decision to freeze the asset. However, Justice Esther Maina dismissed the request, meaning that the rental income will continue to be deposited in a government account. The court ordered that all rental income or proceeds collected by the managing agent will be deposited to the Registrar of the High Court of Kenya until the conclusion of Kabuga’s case at the UN tribunal. Kabuga’s trial, which is being held in The Hague, is currently on hold, after a medical team issued a report stating that the 90-year-old was “too ill to stand trial” having been diagnosed with clinical dementia. Survivors have protested the move.
