• Oparanya was on August 23 questioned by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives at Integrity Centre alongside his spouse.
• The case relates to alleged embezzlement of Sh1.3 billion during his two-term tenure as Governor of Kakamega County.
Image: SCREENGRAB
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has concluded investigations against former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and forwarded the file to the Director of Public Prosecution for action.
EACC chair Bishop David Oginde made the revelation on Tuesday while appearing before the National Dialogue Committee on bipartisan talks sitting at the Bomas of Kenya.
"As we speak now, we have just concluded our investigations on this particular person. We have forwarded that particular file to the Director of Public Prosecution for further action," he said.
Oginde's response arose from a question from Nyamira Senator Okong'o Omogeni on why there are no prosecutions of high-profile individuals linked to corruption.
"We don't want you to mourn or to write the book of lamentations. You are now entrenched in the Constitution, you now enjoy the security of tenure and we expect you to deal with all these issues of leadership," Omogeni said.
Oparanya was on August 23 questioned by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives at Integrity Centre alongside his spouse in relation to alleged embezzlement of Sh1.3 billion during his two-term tenure as Governor of Kakamega County.
The anti-graft commission said investigations indicated that public funds were unlawfully acquired through proxies and associates during his tenure.
"Following increasing media inquiries, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) wishes to confirm that today, Wednesday, August 23, 2023, the Commission conducted a successful search on various targets as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of embezzlement of public funds amounting to over Sh1.3 billion from Kakamega County during the reign of former Governor, Wycliffe Oparanya, and where it was found that public funds were unlawfully acquired through proxies and associates," EACC Deputy CEO Abdi Mohamud said.
Oginde said the commission has carried out thorough investigations into the allegations and exuded confidence that the evidence is watertight to pass the prosecutorial test.
He dismissed the notion by the Azimio coalition that the case against Oparanya is political with hunt saying every case is handled objectively based on the evidence at hand.
"And it's a very rigorous process, we do our own internal audit on each of the cases. If you check very keenly, most of the cases that we forward to the ODPP rarely fail, are withdrawn or dropped," he said.
Oginde said the commission is going to follow the same criteria of carrying out rigorous investigations against persons suspected to be involved in corruption.
He, however, lamented about low human resource and finance capacity saying this is hampering the commission's ability to pursue all cases, and for those already under probe take long to be finalised.
"We have 11 regional offices across the country covering 47 counties. In order for these people to do the kind of task that they need to do, it requires a lot of resources and time.
"This is why we are asking that our capacity be increased so that we can act as quickly as possible on the cases that come up," Oginde told the committee.