Lawyer Tom Ojienda Arrested In Connection To Ksh200 Million Scandal At Mumias Sugar
Tom Ojienda. [IMAGE/ COURTESY]
Sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) have nabbed lawyer Tom Ojienda over professional services he offered to Mumias Sugar Company and the fees he received.
His lawyer Nelson Havi, condemned he arrest terming it as a ploy to violate Ojienda’s rights to privacy.
“It is easy to see through the ploy by the DCI and the DPP in arresting Professor Tom Ojienda on a Friday afternoon; hold him over the weekend; procure warrants to search his homes and offices in his absence; and violate his constitutional rights in the process. Justice on trial!”
Ojienda was arrested alongside his colleague Peter Wanyama and are being held at DCI headquarters in Kiambu.
Havi says that the Friday arrests are wrong when “the court is on vacation”, hence impossible for suspects to seek reprieve.
Havi further stated that the arrests are meant to interfere with the Law Society of Kenya male member representative to the Judicial Service Commission elections, in which Prof Ojienda is a contender.
“A team of advocates is assembled at the DCI headquarters with a view to ensuring Prof Ojienda is released on cash bail, and ascertaining the scope of enquiry that is being undertaken by the officers,” he said.
Mr Ojienda was implicated in the Ksh200 million scandal in 2015 where Mr Peter Kebati, who had succeeded Dr Evans Kidero as managing director, was accused of single sourcing legal services from Prof Ojienda.
The lawyer’s law firm is said to have received Ksh7 million to represent the company on a trademark infringement suit in 2013.
The case involved Option Two Limited, which Mumias Sugar said was selling sugar wrapped in packages similar to its own.
