Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru says that the raid conducted by the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) at her homes and offices is a ploy to distract Kenyans from the various multimillion corruption cases in the country.
In a statement shared on Twitter, Waiguru also linked the raid to 2022 politics, further adding that she has been used before as a political decoy before.
“The amount was Sh10 million. Why do they see the need to shore up numbers? This is not about the travel imprests but a wider scheme to shape 2022 succession politics in Mt Kenya…and to detract from critical allegations against a multitude of persons on various multimillion corruption cases.”
Read: EACC: Why We Raided Governor Waiguru’s Home, Offices
The statement adds, “…wild allegations are thrown around only to come empty of even the basic proof. Investigations must never be about sideshows, politicking and image shaming.”
Earlier, detectives from EACC had raided the homes and offices of Waiguru in Kerugoya and Nairobi and carted away crucial documents in renewed graft investigations.
Reports indicated that the early morning raid caught the governor by surprise despite being linked to graft allegations and abuse of office by Kirinyaga MCAs.
EACC Central Regional Manager Charles Rasungu had on June 10 hinted on the case, saying that one of the investigations involves a number of tenders allegedly influenced by the governor.
Speaking after the raid, EACC boss Twalib Mbarak indicated that the early morning operation was part of investigations into allegations that the Governor and other officials of the County Government of Kirinyaga, were irregularly paid travel allowances of approximately Ksh23 million and the monies were reportedly spent on non-existent trips.
Read Also: EACC Detectives Raid Homes, Offices Of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru
The search warrants, according to EACC, were issued by the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Nyeri.
“EACC is in the process of establishing whether the trips were actually undertaken and whether the documents supporting disbursement of Kenya Shillings Twenty Three Million (Kshs. 23,000,000/ =) to County officials were genuine, ” said Mbarak.
“…Our officers have been granted access to several offices and residences with a view of retrieving information that may be useful to the ongoing investigation.”
This comes a couple of months after Kirinyaga MCAs filed a motion to impeach governor Waiguru on the basis of gross violation of the Constitution, abuse of office and gross misconduct.
The governor was also accused of using her office to improperly confer a benefit to herself when she was irregularly paid for travel allowances by way of imprests amounting to Ksh10.6 million yet she did not travel.
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She was also accused of influencing tender awards in the county, awarding them to his cronies and relatives.
Acquitting the governor in June, the Senate Select Committee that was investigating impeachment motion against her found that there was gross mismanagement of tenders in the county.
The committee however said that it could not link the governor to the mismanagement of the tenders.
Kirinyaga MCAs pledged to renew their fight against the governor stating that the was yet to be over.