Ex-Nairobi Governor Kidero now sues EACC, DPP for harassment

Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has sued the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over a search recently conducted at his home.

Kidero claims that since he exited politics he has been on the receiving end of “threats, attacks, harassment, witch-hunt and intimidation by the EACC and DPP.”

The former  governor, who has filed the case together with his wife Susan Mboya Kidero and his children, has accused the EACC of seizing different documents from them.

He alleges that the search warrant was obtained in a bid to sustain an ongoing criminal case which he claims is facing imminent failure due to lack of evidence.

In the court documents, Kidero says that he is a man of fair means who has accumulated his wealth gradually over the course of years since his first employment back in the year 1983.

According to Kidero, EACC has resorted to intimidating his family members in a bid to “touch him where it hurts most and make his family members, friends and associates shun him in violation of his rights.”

He claims that on September 20, 2018, his Muthaiga home was raided and turned upside down by about 40 men from the EACC.

“The officers came armed with a search warrant dated 19th of this month, I was held hostage and falsely imprisoned in my own house with no consideration of my dignity, ” reads court documents.

Kidero further claims that the said search warrant is “unconstitutional, defective and ought to be quashed,” further arguing that EACC has no jurisdiction to investigate the affairs of Mumias Sugar Company as the said company is private and not a public entity.

He says that the warrant was obtained without following due procedure, adding that he was not granted any notice before the warrant was obtained to search his premises.

Through his lawyer, Prof. Tom Ojienda, Kidero argues that the search warrant was abused as EACC confiscated properties that he had acquired as early as 1987 yet the alleged period of investigations was between the time he was the Managing Director of Mumias Sugar Company.

He says that EACC went ahead to search his family members’ properties which are separate legal entities that have their own legal capacities recognized by law without a search warrant whatsoever against any of the companies.