The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) pursued city lawyer Tom Ojienda over the loss of public funds at Mumias Sugar Company.

The DCI, in reply to a case trying to block its probe of Prof Ojienda, said that it was seeking the top lawyer over the loss of the money at the Nairobi Securities Exchange listed miller.

Stopping Arrest

Prof Ojienda moved to court two weeks ago to block DCI detectives from arresting him.

According to Prof Ojienda, the DCI was after him allegedly due to forged entries in his tax register and fictitious figures of his payments in legal fees.

However,  the directorate maintained that the probe was linked to affairs at the struggling sugar miller, where the State has a stake and recently pumped in billions in a bailout plan.

“These investigations by the DCI are purely aimed at discovering whether Mumias Sugar Company or any other person was involved, aided, connived, and or facilitated in the commission of the crime under investigations,” the DCI stated.

The directorate says in court documents further added that the probe will reveal whether State funds were lost through fraud.

Court Battles

Prof Ojienda at one time represented Mumias Sugar and currently, he is acting for former Mumias Sugar managing director Evans Kidero in his court battles with the anti-graft agency.

EACC had investigated Mr Kidero for alleged embezzlement of public funds while at the helm of the county government and Mumias Sugar.

The High Court prohibited the DCI and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from starting civil or criminal proceedings against Prof Ojienda in respect to the tax issue.