EACC officers assaulted me during raid, Wa Iria claims

Murang’a County Governor, Mwangi Wa Iria, has recorded a statement at Kirwara Police station claiming that he was assaulted by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers when they raided his Thika residence on Thursday.

Wa Iria filed the complaint a day after the EACC raid which he termed as illegal and unconstitutional, adding that the exercise was marred by irregularities.

Speaking from his Thika home, the governor claimed that he and his family were harassed and physically assaulted by the anti-graft officers.

Wa Iria said that the EACC officers who raided his residence on Thursday morning confiscated the family’s phones, iPads and other electronic gadgets on arrival. It was during that process that the officers inflicted injury on his wrist and shoulder as they struggled with him in an effort to seize his phone, the embattled governor claims.

In his statement, Wa Iria gave an account of the alleged assault and listed all the property that was confiscated during the raid, demanding to have it back.

The Murang’a governor condemned the whole exercise noting that it did not follow guidelines which state that a search should only be done after sun rise and finished before dusk.

Wa Iria claimed that the whole exercise was politically influenced by a section of Murang’a leaders who wants to intimidate him and put him behind bars so that he is not to be able to seek a re-election come 2017.

He called upon the people of Murang’a County to shun bad politics and falsehoods peddled by his rivals in bid to fight him politically.

On Thursday, EACC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kairichi Marimba, announced they had obtained court orders to search the governor’s premises, together with those of his associates in Murang’a, Kiambu and Nairobi.

In April 2015, Wa Iria  was arrested by the EACC detectives and taken to court for allegedly misleading the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by failing to disclose that he was convicted in a criminal case before Makadara Magistrate’s Court.

Tobiko had authorised Wa Iria’s prosecution on the grounds that he had provided false information to the IEBC in 2012.

According to the EACC, the Murang’a County boss had been summoned on several occasions to respond to the questions touching on his integrity, but he failed to honour the summons.