Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero’s wife has petitioned High Court to compel the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to release her documents and items she says the agency seized unlawfully.
In her court documents, Susan Mboya claims EACC has failed to comply with Anti-Corruption Court Justice Hedwig Ong’undi’s orders issued on November 8 to release documents and items seized from her and unrelated to the investigations conducted against her husband Kidero. Susan claims EACC has been treating her as Kidero’s appendage.
“I am a professional lady of international standing with a substantial income of my own, not just a mere appendage, an extension and or the property of the first petitioner (Kidero), who is a dependent spouse as portrayed in the actions of the second respondent in lumping (Kidero’s) affairs with mine,” she says in her court documents.
She says after justice Ong’undi issued the order for some of their items to be returned, the commission only invited her husband Kidero to collect them.
Among the documents she wants to be released by the EACC are her will, personal income records and investment mortgage documents.
At the same time Kidero has filed another affidavit in court accusing the EACC of sending an unregistered person to value his properties which are under investigation.
On November 6, Anti-corruption High court Judge Hedwig Ong’undi issued an order directing “that any searched and seized properties which the commission has already found to be unrelated to the matter at hand must be released forthwith within the next 72 hours. A formally prepared inventory shall be signed by all affected parties with a copy to each of them and the court,”
“The commission has treated me as though I am an appendage, extension of a property to Kidero yet I am a separate legal entity and person entitled to own property without attachment to Kidero.”
https://t.co/VNi39X2S3c— Nanjala Nyabola (@Nanjala1) November 20, 2018
The order was served on the commission on November 8 and the commission immediately wrote a letter to Kidero and his lawyers notifying them to attend their offices to collect several documents and properties itemized in their letter.
But Kidero says the documents released to him on November 9 are an insignificant portion of what is irrelevant to the commission’s investigations. His wife was however not invited to collect hers.
In a fresh application, Kidero now claims that the commission has not fully complied with the order issued in court and its conduct demonstrates that it is likely to continue in the non-compliance with the order. He now wants the court to intervene and release all the 58 properties.
“The commission did not release documents and items unrelated to its investigations in particular, those seized from Susan and those seized from me but which have no relevance to the investigations claimed to be undertaken,” he says
Kidero has also accused the commission of sending unlicensed person to value his property, which is under investigation.
The former governor has attached copies of Kenya Gazette Notices, which notified the public of valuers licensed to practice in 2018.
The two volumes do not contain one Pius Maithya who in an affidavit dated October 22 said claims he is a registered Valuer and investigator with the commission.
“I have ascertained that Pius Maithya who is in charge of the valuations is not a registered valuer as required by sections 8 and 22 of the Valuers Act, contrary to claims in his affidavit. The Commission lacks the legal authority to undertake the valuations,” he says.