• Governor maintains there was no evidence of crime availed in the subordinate court to warrant a search
• The seized documents included cheque books, log books and land titles
Image: FILE
Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu wants the anti-corruption agent ordered to return all the documents it seized from his Thome and Runda homes last month.
The documents include cheque books, log books and land titles, Waititu says through lawyer Oliver Kipchumba.
He also wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission prohibited from future searches and seizures without hearing the affected parties.
The governor says on June 23, the EACC raided his homes and conducted extensive searches before taking away documents, among them title deeds and log books.
“The search warrant was formulated and crafted in a manner that it was designed to be a catch fall trap and instrument that allowed the EACC to turn upside down and ransack my houses and belongings,” he says.
"The warrant, which was issued by a magistrate's court, does not state the specific offences and crimes the commission is investigating in order to create a connection between the items seized and the offence purported to have been committed," the court documents read.
Waititu says the evidence before the court did not constitute and disclose reasonable grounds for the issuance of the order and warrant for search and seizure.
“I am not aware and I have not been informed of the investigations that are being conducted against me and I have not been afforded the right or opportunity to confront the allegations made against me.”
The governor argues that the subordinate court irrationally and unreasonably authorised for search and seizure "with a single sweeping blanket warrant that enabled the commission to carry out simultaneous and multiple areas of search and seizure".
He also claims the subordinate court did not comply with directions elaborately set out by the High Court, anti-corruption and economic crimes division and that the warrants are illegal.
“No reasonable case was made before the subordinate court to enable the court to conclude that there was reasonable evidence of the commission of a crime by me. The search warrants given to the EACC to search my homes are, therefore, illegal because the offences and crimes were not particularised in the warrants,” the court papers say.
Waititu believes the commission is on a fishing expedition as the search was conducted beyond what was authorised by the court.
The search and seizure warrant was obtained by the commission on May 22.
The case will be heard on Tuesday next week.
Edited by R.Wamochie