Homa Bay clerk seeks court help to stop probe
Homa Bay County Assembly Clerk wants the anti-corruption agency and the Director of Public Prosecutions stopped from investigating him over embezzlement of funds.
In sworn affidavits filed at the Kisumu High Court, Mr Bob Kephas Otieno through his advocate Erick Ojuro, asked for an “urgent” court intervention arguing that the ongoing investigations had reportedly stalled the activities of the Assembly.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers raided the offices of the Clerk and Principal Accountant Maurice Amek in March, over suspicions that they had embezzled millions of shillings from the county government.
Mr Otieno fled soon after the anti-graft officers arrived, while Mr Amek was detained as the officers searched two of his houses in different estates in Homa Bay town.
According to the EACC South Nyanza Regional officer Abraham Kemboi, the clerk is suspected to have acquired property valued at Sh30 million, for which he paid in cash while Mr Amek is alleged to have acquired property worth over Sh50 million.
In his affidavit, the clerk argued that the raid by EACC was in breach of rules of natural justice and the law.
“Unless the court intervenes, it will be highly prejudiced as EACC has completely paralysed the activities of the Assembly after carrying out the raid without any justifiable cause and in breach of the powers privileges and immunities,” said Mr Otieno.
The two claimed that the action by the EACC “would amount to stopping them from performing their statutory duties’’.
“The DPP and EACC should not be allowed to usurp the roles of devolved governments provided by statute and the Constitution of Kenya,” Mr Otieno says in his affidavit.
He went on: “In pushing to court a case that has no merits, the DPP and EACC would be violating Article 232 (1) b which mandates them to ensure efficient, effective and economic use of resources which includes their own time and judicial time.”
He claims that since 2013, the Assembly’s accounts have been audited as required under Article 226 of the constitution and as such “the EACC cannot usurp the roles of the Auditor General established under Article 248 of the Constitution.”
