Mudavadi: I'm innocent on Nairobi cemeteries

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi on Wednesday maintained his innocence over the Sh283 million cemetery land scandal and released documents showing that the money was paid out six months before the sale agreement was signed.

Mr Mudavadi at the same time denied claims that a Mr Newton Osiemo had acted as his “emissary” in the transaction and collected Sh59 million on his behalf.

Addressing a Press conference after meeting officials from the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) in his office, Mr Mudavadi accused the anti-graft body of leaking a report to the media implicating him in the scam even before it had completed investigations into the affair.

He tabled letters he had separately written to the anti-graft body and Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura demanding that action be taken against Local Government ministry and Nairobi City Council officials implicated in the scandal, yet no action was taken.

In the first letter, dated February 17 this year, Mr Mudavadi asked KACC to take action against all those who had been implicated in the fraud by a Special Audit report of the Controller and Auditor General.

Implicated

A day later, Mr Mudavadi wrote to Mr Muthaura demanding that action be taken against officers in his ministry and City Hall who had been implicated in the scam by the Controller and Auditor General.

“To the best of my action, no action was taken until a purported report by KACC – which until then I had not seen – was surreptitiously leaked to the media for political reasons,” he stated.

“Isn’t it unusual that a report to be handled confidentially is leaked prior to the completion of investigations or verification of information? Even in law, is KACC supposed to file a report to the Prime Minister and the Head of Civil Service or is it supposed to conduct full investigations and forward its report to the Attorney General?” Mr Mudavadi wondered.

The report in question records an allegation by the council’s legal affairs director, Ms Mary Ng’ethe, claiming that Nairobi Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa had introduced a Mr Newton Osiemo to her as a business associate of Mr Mudavadi and that he would take care of the Deputy Prime Minister’s interests in the scandal.