• This follows an incident last month in which two impostors visited the offices of Senior Counsel John Khaminwa in a bid to intimidate and extort money from him.
• The imposters identified themselves as EACC officers, despite the absence of any evidence in that respect.
Image: FILE
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has urged Kenyans to be on high alert following a rise in cases of imposters defrauding Kenyans while masquerading as the agency's officerrs.
This follows an incident last month in which two impostors visited the offices of Senior Counsel John Khaminwa in a bid to intimidate and extort money from him.
The imposters identified themselves as EACC officers, despite the absence of any evidence in that respect.
Khaminwa had said two individuals from the EACC visited his office to intimidate him following his submissions against the state in the BBI appeal case.
"These two individuals, I got the impression, came here to intimidate me and to take advantage of what I said in court against me in the matter of BBI," he said.
"I stand by what I said at the Court of Appeal... what I said was truthful."
Shortly after, the Anti-corruption commission denied raiding Khaminwa's office.
In a tweet, it said, "EACC wishes to notify the public that it did not conduct any operation yesterday and media reports suggesting that EACC visited the offices of John Khaminwa Senior Counsel are unfounded."
A few weeks ago, the principal of a secondary school alerted the EACC about two individuals claiming to be its officers, demanding Sh200,000 to facilitate the withdrawal of corruption allegations against him and the school bursar.
The commission said on Tuesday that it has not only issued its officers with appropriate identification documents, which can be verified on request but also warned members of the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious person or fraudsters.
“Kenyans should insist to any person claiming to be an EACC officer to first identify him/herself and note that any interview or questioning is conducted at the Commission’s premises or in police stations,” EACC said.
Section 34 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2003 states, “No person other than an investigator shall represent himself to be or act as an investigator, and a person who contravenes this section is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to both.”
EACC warned the impersonators of arrest and possible jail terms.
Meanwhile, the commission commended two police officers who arrested a person claiming to be an EACC officer in Oyugis, Homa Bay county.
Edited by CM