NAIROBI: Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok has gone to court seeking a public apology from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) over a report that has linked him to corruption.
Nanok, who filed a petition before the High Court to challenge the report wants EACC to publish an apology on the local dailies that have national circulation.
Nanok is among five cabinet secretaries and 12 governors asked by President Uhuru Kenyatta to step aside and allow the commission to conduct investigations during his State of the Nation speech before the National Assembly last month.
Nanok now wants sections of the report titled Current Status of Corruption Matters under Investigations to the presidency dated March 27, quashed.
The governor has filed the suit against EACC alongside Turkana County Executive in the ministry of finance Paul Ekwom.
The report, they argued, is defamatory and has condemned them of the offence before they have been heard.
The two are now seeking damages for the defamation they say they have suffered due to the damage to their reputations.
The report, Nanok through his lawyer Jotham Arwa says, states that he used public funds to pay an unnamed contractor.
He is alleged to have paid the said contractor Sh 14 Million for the construction of a bridge, yet none was constructed.
“The said statements were grossly defamatory and were published with the sole intention of reducing us in the estimation of right thinking members of the public and subjecting us to public ridicule and humiliations,” he stated.
He argued that no such payments have been made by himself or the county adding that the county’s budget has never included the construction of a bridge.
“All projects undertaken by Turkana County Government must be included in the annual budgets which must be approved by County Assembly before the comptroller of budgets can authorize the release of the funds,” he explained.
He attached documents alongside his petition, which he says prove that there has never been such a project in his county and no payments made towards it.
-standardmedia.co.ke
Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok sues EACC for linking him to graft
