EACC raids home of senior government official

juma chrispinus

May 4, 2017 9:01 AM

The government official is said to have swindled massive amount of cash from a top office

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EACC detectives have this Thursday morning raided homes of top National Lands Commission officials.

The house of NLC embattled chairman Muhammad Swazuri has is under siege by the anti corruption police officers from the graft watchdog body following corruption claims leveled against him.

EACC officials are suspected to be conducting an investigation over allegations of a skewed compensation of the Standard Gauge Railway land, said to have seen billions of cash lost.

“The raid was conducted this morning at the homes of Swazuri and other officials, we will get you more details later,” the official said.

Also Read: NLC boss woes deepen over Sh1 million bribe allegation

The land Commission’s vice chairperson’s house has not been spared in the swoop, among other high ranking officials at the top management.

The detectives have taken away crucial documents to enable their investigation. However, there has been no immediate confirmation if any of the NLC officials was arrested.

NLC chairman Mohammed Swazuri has been under a tough parliamentary committee investigation following a complaint by former journalist Mugo Njeru who claimed he bribed him to facilitate compensation of his prime land.

Njeru and his wife Edith Wairimu accused the embattled Swazuri of demanding a bribe of Sh1.2 million to be compensated for their land. The government had acquired the piece of land to pave way for the construction of Standard Gauge Railway project.

On his part, however, Swazuri insists that the parliamentary committee did not have powers to investigate allegations of bribery and corruption as the mandate exclusively belongs to the police and EACC.

“By purporting to do so, the committee is acting in excess of jurisdiction by usurping the exclusive roles of the police and EACC,” he argued.

He has since denied all the allegation, and is not conformed whether he was at home at the time of the swoop.

juma chrispinus