Muranga Governor Mwangi Wa Iria arrested

Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria was on Monday afternoon arrested by Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) officers and taken to Integrity Centre for questioning.

Wa Iria was arrested while driving to Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi to visit a patient.

The arrest comes after his confrontation with commission officers who stormed his home in late January in an ongoing investigation into graft allegations facing him.

EACC detectives searched his homes and offices in Thika and Murang’a towns with the commission’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kairichi Marimba, saying it had obtained court orders to search his premises and 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 he was convicted in a criminal case before Makadara Magistrate’s Court.

However, the High Court issued orders restraining the EACC and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko from arresting him in relation to the allegations.

Tobiko had authorized 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 failed to honour the summons.

After the raid, Wa Iria recorded a statement at Kirwara Police station claiming that he was assaulted by EACC officers when they raided his Thika residence.

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 claimed.

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 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 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.