Mudavadi plans to sue anti-graft unit

• Minister protests after KACC names him in Sh283 million cemetery scandal

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has threatened to sue the anti-graft agency for implicating him in the Sh283 million cemetery land scandal.

Through lawyer Fred Ojiambo, Mr Mudavadi on Friday wrote to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and its acting director John Mutonyi, accusing them of injuring his reputation by claiming that he benefited from the proceeds of the fraudulent land transaction.

The Local Government minister takes issue with a report written by KACC and leaked to the media, which alleged that a businessman, Mr Newton Osiemo, had “taken care” of his interests and those of his suspended permanent secretary Sammy Kirui in the land deal.

He particularly takes offence with a paragraph in the report where a former director of legal affairs at City Hall, Ms Mary Ng’ethe, claimed that Nairobi mayor Geoffrey Majiwa had introduced Mr Osiemo to her as Mr Mudavadi’s business associate, who would take care of his (Mudavadi’s) and Mr Kirui’s interests.

The report goes on to state that Sh30 million allegedly obtained from the deal was withdrawn from the account of Mr Osiemo’s brother, Mr Davies Osiemo, who is a lawyer, and used to purchase land in Karen, Nairobi.

It claims Mr Mudavadi and Mr Kirui could have benefited from the land.

“He (Mr Mudavadi) is shown as being not much more than a common thief, driven by an insatiable hunger to fill his coffers from public resources irrespective of the suffering and anguish he might cause to the bereaved, who would be put to great inconvenience and additional expense for lack of a suitable burial ground for their dead,” the lawyer complains.

Attorney-general

Mr Mudavadi also accuses the anti-graft agency of acting outside its mandate by failing to forward the report to the attorney-general as set out in the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.

He wonders why KACC forwarded the report to the offices of the Prime Minister and Head of Civil Service and circulated it in the media.

At the same time, Nairobi mayor Geoffrey Majiwa said he had already gone to court to stop KACC from investigating him over the cemetery scandal. He disclosed this during a press conference on Friday.

“I have already taken legal action against KACC for giving the public untrue information about me,” he said. He refused to divulge more information, asking journalists to check court records.