• Senior officials say Weta's Tokyo file may be among the first to be reviewed.
• He resigned as Foreign minister in 2010 over alleged involvement in a scam in which country lost Sh1 billion.
Image: FILE
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is considering reviving the Tokyo embassy property scandal that forced Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula from Cabinet in October 2010.
The Tokoyo case is one of many the commission has decided to revisit following the exit of former CEO Halake Waqo whose term expired and his deputy Michael Mubea who has been nominated as Kenya's ambassador to Dublin.
The Wetang’ula Tokyo file may be among the first ones to be reviewed, according to senior EACC officials.
The Bungoma senator is also under probe by DCI for the fake gold scam in which Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s business ally Ali Zandi was allegedly conned millions of shillings by Kenyan scammers.
It is understood that the new CEO Twalib Mbarak wants some of the cases reviewed even as his team deals with new ones.
“The CEO and the board believe some of these cases were not properly handled and that there may be good reason to revisit them,” a commissioner said.
Already Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has questioned the decision by EACC to spend Sh1.5 billion to acquire Integrity Centre.
During the hearing on Monday, it emerged that the National Land Commission valued the property yet it was the acquiring entity, which is a potential conflict of interest.
NLC did the valuation in the absence of the building's structural and architectural design, key components in the determination of a value of a building.
The commission promptly handed shareholders of a little-known company Sh1.1 billion profit for a building that was valued at Sh400 million in late 2013.
During his vetting in Parliament last week, Mubea was bombarded with questions by members of the departmental committee on Defence and Foreign Relations who accused him of all manner of failures including hiding files of corruption suspects.
“Your colleagues refer to you as the 'mafia' sitting on files and blocking cases. Why are the allegations specified against you and not others?” asked Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo.
EACC also plans to review files relating to, among others, the Afya House scandal, the Chickengate scam and Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru’s case.
Waiguru was adversely mentioned in the Sh791 million National Youth Service (NYS 1) scandal whose face became Josephine Kabura, a hairdresser turned tenderpreneur.
Wetang'ula was the minister for Foreign Affairs in 2010 when he resigned over alleged involvement in a scam in which the country lost Sh1 billion in an irregular purchase of land in Japan for an embassy office.
Wetang’ula announced he would step aside to allow investigations following intense pressure from Parliament and civil society.
The Ford Kenya leader was indicted by a parliamentary report that singled out a series of flaws in transactions leading to the purchase of diplomatic property in Central Tokyo, Pakistan, Egypt, Belgium and Nigeria. He was never arraigned.
The House report criticized Wetang’ula and Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Mwangi Thuita, who also stepped aside, for alleged blatant abuse of procedures governing the sale and purchase of diplomatic property abroad.
Wetang'ula and Mwangi were also criticized for ignoring advice from legal experts on the viability of the deal even after the Japanese government offered to accommodate the Kenyan embassy for free.
Later in 2016, Mwangi and two others were acquitted of all charges in relation to the Tokyo embassy scam.
A Nairobi court ruled the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the three.
The former PS had been charged alongside former ambassador to Libya Anthony Muchiri and former chargé d'affaires in Tokyo Allan Mburu.
They were charged with abuse of office in procuring the embassy and ambassador’s residence in Tokyo at a price of Sh1.4 billion, and for failing to involve the ministerial tender committee in approving the purchase.
Previously, EACC has previously started corruption investigations with gusto but most of them have either ended up nowhere or investigations have appeared compromised, malicious or politically motivated.