An aide to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been cleared of corruption claims. Businessman Caroli Omondi was being probed over the purchase of a parcel of land on Loita Street, Nairobi, from Kenya Commercial Bank for Sh220 million before flipping it to a buyer for Sh650 million.
Both the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and Directorate of Public Prosecutions have said there is no evidence to link Omondi to the said graft.
The DPP agreed with the recommendations of the EACC to close the file for lack of evidence.
“I note that you have reiterated the recommended, that the file be closed. I am satisfied that there is no evidence to support the allegations,” said DPP Keriako Tobiko in a letter to EACC dated March 9, 2016.
Both EACC and DPP found out that the property in question was sold by KCB to Peris Nasimiyu through a nominee company known as Sirios Holding following a consent ordered by a court on January 10, 2011.
EACC wrote to Omondi on March 18 to inform him the matter had been closed.
“The matter has therefore been closed and the commission will not pursue it anymore,” said head investigations Abdi Mohamud.
Omondi’s name featured on the list of shame presented to Parliament by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March last year over an allegation that he had bought from the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) a parcel of land along Loita Street in Nairobi for Sh260 million and was in the process of selling the same to a businessman for Sh650 million.
But KCB wrote to his lawyers Ahmednasir Abdikadir Advocates denying those allegations.
Wednesday, Omondi said he was happy with the closure of the case.
“The good has conquered evil putting avarice and malice to instant flight. Our national addiction to high octane romour mongering irreparably impairs the fight against graft.”
“Only with courage to keep the scales of justice in equipoise shall we allow the truth not to be lost in the abundance of that which is false. For those of us born after independence, the fight against the twin evils of negative ethnicity and graft is truly the fight of our generation to keep the idea of Kenya alive,” he said.
Source-standardmedia.co.ke
Caroli Omondi cleared of graft claims for lack of evidence
