Migori Governor Okoth Obado is once again in the eye of a storm with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) breathing down his neck over alleged plundering of county funds.
EACC has accused Governor Obado of using a proxy to purchase a house in Loresho, one of the high-end suburbs of Nairobi at a cost of Ksh35 million which was obtained from the county coffers.
The anti-graft agency stated that Obado used a company registered under Jared Peter Kwaga to purchase the house.
Kwaga, together with 1o others have been accused of siphoning more than Ksh2 billion from the county by skewing its procurement system.
Some of the proceeds are believed to have been wired to Obado.
Kwaga is reportedly said to have registered several companies which have been doing business with Migori Count Government.
EACC whilst obtaining preserving orders from the court argued that the rental income from the house is deposited in Everlyne Adhiambo Obado’s account. Adhiambo is Obado’s daughter.
This, EACC stated, raises a lot of suspicion into who is the real owner of the property.
Justice Mumbi Ngugi issued the preserving order for the property for six months barred, Kwaga, Adhiambo and Obado who are respondents in the case from selling, disposing or charging the house until investigations into the case are complete.
Lawyer Philip Kagucia of EACC told the court that the agency is currently probing the officials from the county government of Migori for allegedly conducting business with some private contractors who inflate costs with the intent to defraud the county.
Kagucia cited that these contractors have used fake procurement contracts and the aftermath is that they have accumulated a lot of wealth through dubious means.
“The applicant is apprehensive that the 1st Respondent (Kwaga), in light of the ongoing investigations, may in the intervening period, transfer, dispose or in any other way deal with the properties to defeat the course of justice, before the commission has completed its investigations,” he said.
“Out of the monies cited hereinabove, the 1st Respondent applied a sum of Sh34,525,000.00, towards the acquisition of a property in Nairobi County referred to as, Loresho Ridge,” Kagucia added.
