Former Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya on Thursday revealed that he had Ksh2 million in his house in Nairobi during the raid conducted by officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on August 23.
Speaking during a church service, the ODM deputy party leader explained that he had the money in the house to facilitate the payments of school fees for one of his children.
He added that one of his children studies in the United States hence the large sum.
According to the former governor, he was to take the money to the bank and change it to dollars given that the fees of his child were paid in foreign currency.
Oparanya expressed that he was forthcoming about the funds when he was quizzed by the detectives over the money he had in the house.
"I had Ksh2 million for one of my children who was going abroad. My child studies in America and I was going to buy dollars," he stated.
On the other hand, he clarified that he was not apprehended by the detectives but accompanied the officers to Integrity House to follow up on some items that had been taken by the officers.
"They took my phones including those of my children and they told me to see their boss if I wanted them back. I followed them to Integrity Center to get the phones of my children back and when I got there, it was reported that I was apprehended," Oparanya stated.
On his grilling, he intimated that the officers from EACC also sought to know about his business dealings with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Oparanya maintained that they were only political associates.
He termed the raid on his homes in Nairobi and Kakamega as political maintaining that he would still stick with Raila despite the pressure to decamp to President William Ruto's camp.
According to EACC, the raid at Oparanya's home was informed by investigations over the alleged embezzlement of county funds amounting to Ksh1.3 billion.
The money is reported to have been lost during Oparanya's 10-year reign through his proxies.
