DCI officers have summoned a former close business associate of Migori Governor Okoth Obado to record a statement about an alleged plot by the county boss to kill him.
Investigators are understood to have received an anonymous letter detailing a scheme by Obado and his associates to eliminate Jared Kwaga, who had close businesses dealings with Obado. The two have had a falling out, the reason is not clear.
DCI officers are reported to have camped in Migori this past weekend and interviewed several people. They are expected to interview both Kwaga and Obado.
By 6pm, Obado had not returned calls or responded to text messages seeking comment.
Yesterday the Star learnt that Kwaga has previously expressed fears for his life, even claiming that unidentified people had been trailing him in unmarked cars.
Yesterday Kwaga confirmed the DCI had summoned him to shed light on a plot to murder him.
“DCI officers have summoned me to record a statement with them,” he told the Star.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has gone to court seeking various orders against Kwaga relating to millions of shillings that he allegedly wired to Obado’s children abroad.
The EACC is said to believe the money is linked to fictitious contracts undertaken in Migori county.
In court papers, however, the EACC paints a picture of Obado and Kwaga as inseparable.
“Communications link analysis indicates that the governor is in constant communication with Jared Kwaga,” EACC said.
In October last year, Obado and his two aides were arrested and charged with the gruesome murder of his lover Sharon Otieno, who was seven months’ pregnant with Obado’s son.
It remains unclear exactly what business dealings or other issues triggered the falling out between Kwaga and Obado.
However, the EACC says in court filings that Obado and his family worked with Kwaga to orchestrate a Sh2 billion theft from Migori county coffers.
“Preliminary investigations have raised reasonable suspicion that the embezzled public funds have been used by the governor, his wife and the said close proxies, the respondents herein, to accumulate property and illicit wealth,” EACC says in one filing.
The bad blood is likely to fuel efforts of the EACC, that is going flat out to put Obado at the centre of the looting.
So far, the EACC has confirmed that Obado benefitted from fictitious contracts amounting to Sh38,949,376.
This was through money wired by Kwaga to the governor’s children in bank accounts in Australia and Scotland.