Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero accused the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) of dragging his family into allegations made against him.
The court heard that EACC had searched the properties of his wife, Susan Mboya, and his children and carried away documents although they have a right to their own investments.
The former Nairobi Governor accused the agency of taking advantage of the Magistrate Court’s search orders to cart away, among other things, his wife’s documents.
According to Kidero, where spouses are concerned, the EACC had ignored that Dr Mboya was an independent party.
He argued that the court should have known that Mumias Sugar was a private entity that was run by successive boards of directors.
Through lawyers James Orengo, Nelson Havi and Tom Ojienda, Dr Kidero argued that: “Had they made that disclosure, the court should have known that it had no powers to issue the orders.”
The EACC ought to have first asked him whether he owned all of the 75 properties it listed, the former Nairobi governor argued adding that 15 of them did not belong to him.
“What the applicant did was to illegally seek information but also use the same to tarnish the applicant’s name by publishing the same in newspapers,” he indicated.
Lawyer Orengo told the court, “My lady, this is a fishing expedition shrouded in malice and is an abuse of the court. One of the documents they seized was Abigael Kidero’s death certificate.”
He argued that a piece of property that EACC claims is worth Ksh300 million was family land where the former governor’s parents were buried.
