High Court judge James Wakiaga issued a temporary order barring Migori Governor Okoth Obado from selling assets including a house and two high-end vehicles pending the hearing of his ongoing case.
The court barred Obado from leasing, charging, selling or developing a house in Loresho Ridge. The ruling also forbids him from selling two Toyota Land Cruiser V8 vehicles.
This followed a suit filed by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday, May 20, on allegations that he had purchased the house from Ksh 34.5 million embezzled from his county government.
The two cars were allegedly registered in the names of Dan Achola and Oliver Odiambo. Ksh 38.9 million was allegedly wired to Obado’s children for university tuition and upkeep.
In addition, the EACC called for all accounts used by the governor to be frozen so that the process of recovery of the proceeds can begin.
The accused is said to fetch a total of Ksh 143,000 monthly from the Loresho property. The anti-corruption commission wants the proceeds from the rent to be directed into a joint account pending the completion of the case.
Together with his four children: Dan Achola Okoth, Evelyne Adhiambo, Scarlet Okoth and Jerry Okoth, the five had been charged in August 2020 with graft and were linked to the theft of Ksh 73.4 million.
The five were co-accused together with Jared Odoyo and 13 companies which were believed to have been awarded contracts irregularly.
They also face money laundering charges after it was revealed that there had been several wired transfers from various bank accounts to Jared Odoyo.
“Our investigation established that the governor, in abuse of is position and in conflict of interest amassed assets valued at Ksh 73,474,376 procured with proceeds of contracts with the county government of Migori,” stated the commission’s lawyer, Culent Simiyu.
The governor was arrested in August,2020 over the same allegations.
Obado was banned from accessing his Migori Office citing interference with ongoing investigations of the case.
