• Sonko says Abdi Mohamud and his associates orchestrated the sale of the building at an exaggerated price of Sh1.5 billion to benefit from proceeds.
• County chief says Abdi has the ability to abuse his office and influence the outcome of investigations by intimidating investigators under him.
Image: DOUGLAS OKIDDY
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has claimed that the director of investigations at the anti-graft agency and other public officers were behind the fraudulent sale of Integrity Centre.
In documents filed in court, Sonko says Abdi Mohamud together with his associates at the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission orchestrated the sale of the building at an exaggerated price of Sh1.5 billion to benefit from proceeds.
Through lawyer Cecil Miller, he says Abdi, going by the position he holds at the EACC, has the ability to abuse his office and influence the outcome of investigations by intimidating investigators under him.
"Abdi orders for concealment of crucial evidence, calls for investigation files and keeps them under lock, hence stalling the investigations, and literally changes the findings and recommendations of covering reports as he wishes," Sonko says.
The county chief adds that Abdi fails to forward investigation reports to the legal department for evidence analysis and crime reading before forwarding them to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
According to the court documents, complaints were raised by individuals regarding the Integrity Centre and when an inquiry was opened by the EACC, Abdi and his close allies interfered with the investigation and altered the report prepared by investigating officer Kipsang Sambai.
“To scuttle and interfere with the investigation regarding the Integrity Centre, Abdi, using his office and in conjunction with his associates at the commission, ensured investigating officer Kipsang Sambai was transferred from Integrity Centre to the commission’s regional offices where he would not actively participate in the investigations," Sonko says.
Abdi engineered the transfer of the investigating officer more than three times in a span of two years without any justifiable cause to frustrate him and ensure he could not handle the matter, the document reads.
Sonko says Abdi has been involved in numerous corrupt transactions. He said he has protested against the transactions and, as a result, Abdi resorted to settling scores by initiating numerous investigations against him.
Sonko has been summoned four times in a span of three months this year by the commission and Abdi regarding malicious allegations against him.
"The actions of the EACC and Abdi of purporting to investigate me on allegations of failing to declare my criminal record or previous convictions in the clearance form I submitted to them are malicious and illegal since I had been cleared by the commission on two different occasions when I sought to vie for the elective positions of Member of Parliament and Senator,” the governor says.
He wants Abdi to step aside from his office to pave the way for investigations. Sonko also wants all probes against him suspended. Also sought is an order enjoining Abdi, the commission, their servants and employees from undertaking any investigation against the county boss.
Sonko says Abdi the unreasonable, numerous and malicious investigations initiated by Abdi against him are due to his uncompromising stand in stopping the grabbing or fraudulent transfer of public properties in Nairobi to private individuals in which Abdi and his associates are beneficiaries.
The properties cited include land on Mugoya Estate along Muhoho Road and the fraudulent transfer of Integrity Centre where the EACC is based.
Regarding the illegal sale of the Mugoya Land, Sonko was the driving force towards having the same reported to the EACC in 2014 and when he noted that four years had gone by without the commission commencing the investigations, he ensured residents followed up the matter and kept the pressure on the commission.
The land, according to the court documents, was earmarked for ECDE Centre/Playground for children on Mugoya Estate.
The county chief says his hard stance in unearthing the corrupt conduct of Abdi in relation to Integrity Centre and the illegal sale of Mugoya land has led to them abusing their power.
Sonko says that in May 2014, one Johnson Nyaga Kibira (a former Nairobi county employee) attempted to grab the land in Mugoya. The residents reached out to him at the time he was the senator.
The residents through their representative Catherine Njiru wrote to Commission requesting for investigations into allegations of suspected fraudulent acquisition of the public utility land. Sonko says Abdi acknowledged receipt of the allegations of suspected fraudulent acquisition of public land and promised that he would act on the same.
Four years later, no investigations were undertaken by the commission as had been assured by Abdi.
“I came to learn that instead of the commission undertaking investigations on the complaint, Abdi used the information obtained from the report on the grabbing of the public land in South C to appropriate the land for himself and his personal friend Isaack Abdullahi Ibrahim,” Sonko says.
The county chief claims that on November 4, 2014, the advocates for Issack Abdullahi Ibrahim Iseme, Kamau & Maema Advocates transmitted a sum of Sh38,250,000 from I&M Bank to then FINA BANK Account No. 1111800331 (Kimathi Street Branch) in the name of J.K. Mwangi Advocates for Johnson Nyaga Kibira.
Sonko says the actions of the commission and Abdi to collude with other state and public officers and private individuals is unlawful. He says they unjustly enrich themselves using their offices by protecting corrupt individuals through failure to investigate corruption allegations.