The CEO of the electoral commission has sued the anti-corruption agency demanding the return of all documents confiscated from his homes in relation to the ongoing investigations into a Sh156 million scandal.
James Oswago, also wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission stopped from further harassing him and his family by conducting any further searches of his homes.
The EACC officials had last week conducted simultaneous raids on his Loresho, Fedha Estate and Uyoma homes and seized numerous documents in their investigations into how the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission paid an additional US$ 2.2 million (Sh195.7 million) over and above the US$16 million which it was supposed to pay for the purchase of electronic voter identification devices.
Yesterday, Oswago's lawyer Jotham Arwa, said the EACC officialssidestepped the procedural requirement to summon him to shed light on the allegations in question before going to court to seek warrants to search his homes.
“They maliciously abused their prosecutorial powers by peddling falsehood to a magistrate’s court and using the same to mislead court into giving them authority to search my premises and office taking advantage of the fact that the said proceedings were conducted behind my back and in utmost secrecy,” said Oswago.
He further accused the EACC of violating his rights and set standards which should be followed by any person or body conducting an investigation. This would have required the EACC officials to inform him of the allegations of involvement in corruption practices so that he could respond to them before summoning him for questioning.
The officers should also have veried the authenticity of the allegations to rule out the possibility that it might have been motivated by those who have political grievances against him, Oswago said accusing the EACC of breaching his constitutional rights to privacy on the basis of suspicion or rumors.
He told Justice Mumbi Ngugi that he did not want to stop genuine investigations but felt the EACC was abusing its powers with the aim of humiliating him.
The judge certified the matter as urgent and directed Oswago to serve the EACC before Thursday's hearing.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment