EACC recommends prosecution of Ruaraka MP Tom Kajwang

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recommended the prosecution of Ruaraka MP Tom Kajwang’ for abuse of office.

In the latest recommendations sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, anti-corruption chiefs claimed the first-time MP should be charged with abuse of office for influencing the employment of a person into two government jobs at the same time.

EACC said in a report to the DPP Keriako Tobiko that it had found evidence Mr Kajwang’ “knowingly facilitated” the employment of a Ms Evelyn Achieng’ Osogo at the Constituency office and also as a personal assistant by the Parliamentary Service Commission.

The Commission also recommended that Ms Osogo be charged with “unlawful acquisition of public property.”

Mr Kajwang’ who was elected in 2013 General Election is a first-time legislator who currently sits on the Speakers’ Panel in the National Assembly.

But the Commission which was also investigating the Deposit Protection Fund Board for circumstances under which the plot of land on which its headquarters, Integrity Centre, stands changed hands now says it could not find criminal culpability to the Board.

The EACC says the DPFB file should be closed for lack of evidence linking the alleged sale of the land to the Board.

On Friday, Ms Beatrice Omari, the Senior Assistant Director of Public Communications at the DPP said they had received Mr Kajwang’s file together with several others with various recommendations.

Though EACC has recommended prosecution, the final say will be made by Mr Tobiko on whether he will be charged or not.

Normally, the DPP may proceed to prosecute or return the file to the EACC for further investigations or may order the closure of the case altogether.

“The above files shall be independently reviewed and decisions thereon made shortly. Our decision will be based on evidence and the law,” she said in a note sent to newsrooms last evening.

Also recommended for prosecution are various officials in the Isiolo County Government, a construction company and a businessman for allegedly engaging in irregular procurement.

Irregular procurement

According to the EACC, Head of Treasury Humphrey Maina, his Human Resource colleague Hadija Halake, Charlese Gichichi who heads the supplies department, Abdi Boru the Chief Warden of Buffalo National Reserve, county engineer Jese Irungu Kariuki and Abdulahi Abdi, a director in the Shamsallab Construction Company and his colleague Shamsha Hussein Lukuman should be charged with irregular procurement of works on rehabilitation of Baraza Park in Isiolo County last year.

Others in the same category are Ali Godana Huka, a volunteer working at the county clerk’s office, businessman Shaban Abdullahi Ali and the construction company itself.

If the DPP goes further to prosecute these officials, they will follow in the footsteps of their Governor Godana Doyo who was charged on Thursday in a Meru Court with conspiracy to commit an economic crime. He is currently out on a Sh4 million bond.

However, in the same report by the EACC, anti-corruption chiefs found little evidence to have former Home Affairs PS Ludeki Chweya prosecuted for embezzlement of funds.

Dr Ludeki Chweya who currently heads the Kenya School of Government was being investigated for embezzlement of Sh116 million given by the Grand Coalition government for the construction of prison houses.
“EACC recommends that the file be closed for lack of evidence of criminal culpability,” the Commission recommended of a former Political Science lecturer at the University of Nairobi.