A former finance director at Mumias Sugar Company now wants EACC to pay him Sh10 million in damages for delaying investigations into the famous list of shame that was published in 2015.
Chris Chepkoit has sued EACC claiming the commission has never concluded investigations into the list of shame published by President Uhuru Kenyatta involving irregular importation of 10,000 tonnes of sugar.
Through his lawyers, he claims that he has written severally to the EACC inquiring the update of the investigations into the graft allegations while at Mumias, but they have received no response.
“An order of compensation in form of general, exemplary and aggravated damages under Article 23 (3) of the constitution in the total sum of Sh10 million from the unconstitutional, unfair and callous conduct the EACC,” reads court papers.
In court papers, Chepkoit claims it's now six years since the alleged investigations were commenced by the EACC in 2015 and no explanation whatsoever has been given by the commissions to explain the inordinate delay in either charging or not charging him.
“The continued uncertainty created by the inordinate delay of the EACC, is not only unfair and illegal but will definitely prejudice his right to a fair hearing in the event the state agencies eventually wake up from their deep slumber and charge him,” reads court papers.
Chepkoit says the uncertainty created by the EACC has continued to portray him as a pariah whose private and professional life has not only been reduced to ridicule and odium, but held in a state of perpetual abeyance.
He wants a declaration that EACC unexplained delay of over six years to conclude investigations into the alleged list of shame constitutes an inordinate delay.
Chepkoit was previously employed as the fiancé director at Mumias Sugar Company Ltd before his resignation with effect from July 1, 2013, via a letter dated June 26, 2013.
Upon the petitioner’s departure from Mumias Sugar, he was subsequently appointed as the chief finance officer at the National Bank of Kenya.
During his tenure at NBK in 2015, the president published a purported list of shame upon the advice of the EACC vide a report dated March 29, 2015, in which he was adversely mentioned.
He was adversely mentioned in the list of shame as having allegedly been involved in the irregular importation of 10,000 MT of sugar.
Due to the adverse publicity generated by the list of shame, he voluntarily stepped aside from his position at NBK to pave way for the investigations by the EACC over alleged involvement in graft activities at his former employment at Mumias Sugar.
On June 16, 2015, the CBK directed he could not resume his duties as CFO until the investigations initiated by the EACC cleared him of the graft allegations.
However, in an unprecedented twist of events and during the pendency of the investigations by EACC, he claims that his employment as chief finance officer at NBK was terminated on April 13.
Chepkoit was charged in 2017 for offences allegedly committed during his tenure as the chief fiancé officer of NBK and the same is still pending and awaiting determination.
-Edited by SKanyara
“WATCH: The latest videos from the Star”