Senior Counsel Tom Ojienda and Lawyer Peter Wanyama were Friday arrested over the ongoing probe into troubled Mumias Sugar Company.
The matter came to the fore after a 2015 report by audit firm KPMG, which showed that the company was exposed to financial losses because its managers did not follow due process in reaching crucial decisions.
The report accused Mr Peter Kebati, who had succeeded Dr Evans Kidero as managing director, of single sourcing legal services from Prof Ojienda.
The lawyer’s law firm is said to have received Sh7 million to represent the company on a trademark infringement suit.
Evans Kidero allegedly paid Tom Ojienda one of the lawyers on record for Mumias, KSh 280m for services not rendered #ListOfShame #TomOjienda pic.twitter.com/tWoFLVEoXd
— Roman Kinyanjui mkenya (@Romankinyash) December 28, 2018
The DCI has been in pursuit of the top lawyer over the loss of the money at the Nairobi bourse-listed miller.
Prof Ojienda had moved to court to block DCI detectives from arresting him, arguing the directorate was after him allegedly due to forged entries in his tax register and fictitious figures of his payments in legal fees.
However, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) revealed that Tom Ojiendo was being investigated over loss of public funds at Mumias Sugar Company.
But the DCI says the investigation is linked to affairs at the struggling sugar miller, Mumias Sugar, where the State has a stake and has recently pumped in billions of shillings in a bailout plan.
“These investigations by the DCI are purely aimed at discovering whether Mumias Sugar Company or any other person was involved, aided, connived, and or facilitated in the commission of the crime under investigations,” the directorate says in court documents, adding that the probe will reveal whether government money was lost through fraud.
Prof Ojienda at one time represented Mumias Sugar. He is currently acting for former Mumias Sugar managing director Evans Kidero in his court battles with the anti-graft agency. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commissio (EACC) has been investigating Mr Kidero, also the former Nairobi governor, for alleged embezzlement of public funds while at the helm of the county government and Mumias Sugar.
The commission says it is investigating properties worth Sh9 billion linked to Mr Kidero, mostly land and buildings, in different parts of the country.
The former governor has accused the commission of overvaluing his assets and falsely listing him as the owner of some prime properties that do not belong to him in order to make the courts part of a harassment campaign against him.
On November 2, High Court judge Chacha Mwita prohibited the DCI and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from starting civil or criminal proceedings against Prof Ojienda in respect to the tax issue.