Fraudulent deals involving the purchase of the Integrity Centre by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) is the reason the latter is after Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, it has emerged.
In a Facebook post, Sonko says that he decided to investigate the matter which cost taxpayers at least Ksh1.5 billion, and discovered that the previous owners of Integrity Centre had not been paying land rates prior to the sale. According to Sonko, they had used a fake Rates Statement of the defunct City Council of Nairobi.
Sonko reveals that after investigations, he also discovered that EACC Director of Investigations Abdi A. Mohamed was the mastermind behind the sale of the building that was said to be sitting on a wetland, a man now after him.
“Little did I know that digging this matter will bring me shocking revelations that would put me at loggerheads with the EACC Cartel led by Abdi A. Mohamed, Director of Investigations, who within no time, I was able to gather that he was the mastermind behind the grabbing and sale of Integrity Centre right while EACC was basking in its cool and glassy shade,” wrote Sonko.
Read: “I spent Only One Hour with Investigators at EACC” – Governor Mike Sonko
Sonko adds that his “investigations, which were interrupted by EACC summons, soon established that the beneficiaries of this deal were EACC Director of Investigations Abdi A. Mohamud and his friends Mohamud Ahmed, CEO of Kenya Deposit Insurance Company and Ahmed Adan of Wetangula, Adan, Makokha & Company Advocates. I also noticed that there was an effort by journalists sympathetic to the EACC Cartel to exonerate the Vice Chair and accuse Swazuri of approving the compulsory acquisition of Integrity Centre.”
Integrity Centre was, before the buyout, owned by Revack Limited, which was established by the firm of Esmail and Esmail Advocates in 1994 with directors as Kassam Esmail and his mother Shirin Esmail holding trust for unknown client to purchase the property known as Trade Bank Centre (today’s Integrity Centre) from the Deposit Protection Fund Board (DPFB), at the time the liquidator of Trade Bank Limited.
Read: Sonko To Appear Before EACC Over Irregular Garbage Collection Tenders
This was before Revack bought the land, which should have amounted to bank fraud.
Sonko goes on to narrate illegalities and life threats that led to the resignation of EACC Vice Chair Irene Keino (April 2015), EACC Chair Mumo Matemu (May 2015) and the death of Geoffrey Oriaro from Ugenya, the lawyer who had petitioned for sacking of Matemu and Keino. Oriaro was found dead in a swimming pool on August 19, 2015.
“On September 2, 2015, three relatives of Lawyer Geoffrey Oriaro died in a Nakuru road accident on a Wednesday morning, two weeks after he was found dead. Oriaro’s brother Patrick Ochieng and his wife Rose Akoth and their daughter were travelling back from his burial. Patrick had said at the burial that the sudden death “cannot just be left like that”,” adds Sonko.
Read: Chinese Firm Inflated Cost For Lake Basin Mall To Cater For Kickbacks, Bribes – EACC
Sonko says that on July 30, 2019, he was summoned by EACC just weeks after he started probing and following up on the Integrity Centre land sale.
“The summon was such an afterthought that I was accused me of “making utterance against Esther Muthoni Passaris on 1st May 2019 (Labour Day) at Pumwani Grounds. How did EACC miss the fact that I made the statements on Madaraka Day at Pangani Grounds?” he poses.
On August 27, 2019 EACC summoned the governor again accusing him of receiving money from his friends before he became the Nairobi governor from companies that are not contractors in the County.
Sonko ropes in Matopeni MCA Abdi Guyo in his investigations, accusing him of being used by Mohamud to protect cartels that had grabbed public land in South “C” and were building a mall.
Read: EACC Summons 41 Siaya MCAs Over Sh8.2 Million Trip To Uganda
He says that the two met at the Poolside of Heron Portico Hotel on September 20, at around 11am where money exchanged hands.
“Guyo arrived first and Abdi a few minutes later. Intelligence confirmed to me that Abdi Guyo had agreed with Issack Abdullahi Ibrahim and property owners who had been given illegal approvals to fund Abdi A. Mohamud until he makes sure I take a plea and step aside to allow for a person who can let him finish constructing his mall on the South C Public Land. Money was exchanged in an orange bag by aides,” says Sonko.
A week later, Guyo accused Sonko of killing careers after firing county officials, following the death of several learners at Precious Talent School where several classes collapsed.
Read: EACC Summons Mike Sonko Over Graft Allegations Against Passaris
“On 11th October 2019, Guyo accuses me of wanting to kill him while I am away in France and goes to DCI to record a statement saying he does not trust officers at the Central Police Station, meaning he had likely been send by Abdi A. Mohamud, who was seconded to EACC from DCI, to a specific officer there sympathetic to their cause,” he adds.
Sonko attributes the most recent summon by EACC to a continued effort to blackmail him to lift a caveat placed by the County government on the South “C” land allegedly grabbed by cartels.
The governor is set to appear before EACC today to answer questions on his ‘criminal past’, something he terms as a scapegoat to arm twist him.
Read: EACC Officer Arrested For Stealing Ksh416,000 Evidence In Mombasa
“It was alleged by EACC in the media that I had lied in my self-declaration form, by claiming that I did not have pending criminal cases. But in truth, none of the 14 EACC self-declaration form questions ask anything about having pending criminal cases,” writes Sonko.
“The commission would like you to respond to these allegations and record a statement regarding the same. To this end, you are required to appear at the EACC headquarters integrity centre, Nairobi, on November 5 at 10 am to facilitate investigations,” reads a summon letter dated October 28 addressed to the governor by the EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak.
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