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Kidero fights CMA’s bid to probe his bank accounts over Mumias

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Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero. file photo | nmg

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has filed a petition in court seeking to stop the police from investigating his personal bank accounts during the 10 years he served as Mumias Sugar Company’s managing director.

Mr Kidero, through his lawyer Tom Ojienda, has termed the investigation initiated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) unlawful and meant to influence the outcome of the election for Nairobi governor in which he is seeking a second term.

He has sued CMA chief executive Paul Muthaura, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General.

READ: New Mumias CEO hopes to be fourth-time lucky

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“This clearly points to a desire to determine the outcome of the election against Mr Kidero,” says Prof Ojienda, adding that the fresh probe on the governor’s bank account is aimed at intimidating him and amounts to political harassment.

“The CMA had illegally, unilaterally, in a blatant show of bad faith and in a politically orchestrated move made a decision to allegedly investigate all his personal bank accounts for a 10-year period.”

The CMA on July 20 directed the Banking Fraud Investigation Unit and the National Police Service to investigate all the governor’s personal bank accounts from year 2006-2016 through a letter dated June 12.

Mr Kidero says the CMA and its auditors wrote to him twice in 2015 seeking to understand the governance practices at Mumias for the period beginning 2002 till 2012 when he served as the firm’s boss.

Hesays he agreed to two meetings relating to independent forensic investigations of Mumias Sugar but denies ever being questioned on alleged fraud at the sugar miller or illegal transfer of the company’s funds into his personal bank accounts.

The auditors, the governor says, had faulted the capital markets regulator for accusing them of failing to conduct the investigations in a manner that the CMA wanted.

The regulator also failed to communicate to him its findings, he says.

Mr Kidero now says that the CMA’s investigators had two years later sought to have another meeting with him but did not ask him to provide them with his bank details when he met them.

During his meetings with the CMA, Mr Kidero was interviewed by a Belgium-based accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO LLP’s Andrew Maclay, Yusuf Abdollah and Nikhil Desai.

The governor says he attended the meetings because he was informed that they were investigating decisions the board of directors of Mumias Sugar #ticker:MSC made during his tenure.

Mr Kidero says the investigations are suspect because he is the only one singled out among board members.

The governor further argues that the investigators’ report published in May last year did not offer any evidence linking any Mumias Sugar director or manager to corporate governance malpractices.

The investigation came after an earlier one conducted by KPMG that saw the DPP request the Director of Criminal Investigations for an update on the investigations.

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