By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has rejected malice accusations from Advocates of the CS nominee for the Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) development Hon. Oparanya.
This comes after EACC declined to clear Oparanya following his nomination by President to the newly nominated Cabinet.
In a letter dated 1st August, 2024 addressed to the National Assembly and widely circulated to media houses, Advocates for Hon. Wycliffe Oparanya, Cabinet Nominee for the Ministry of Cooperatives & MSME Development, have accused EACC of acting with malice in holding that Hon. Oparanya still has an outstanding corruption case despite the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) having withdrawn his earlier approval of the EACC recommendations to prosecute the former Governor of Kakamega.
The Commission dissociates itself from the allegations made by Ken Nyaundi, the lawyer representing Oparanya, who is also a suspect in the case.
“The Commission distances itself from these accusations by Oparanya’s lawyer Ken Nyaundi, who is also a suspect in the case, and clarifies that while it is true that on 25th July 2024, the ODPP delivered to the Commission a letter dated 8th July 2024 withdrawing the DPP’s decision of 18th December, 2023 that had granted EACC consent to charge Oparanya, the Commission did not accept the DPP’s u-turn on the matter,” EACC stated.
According to EACC, the commission wrote back a letter to the DPP reiterating its earlier recommendation to charge all suspects, including Hon. Wycliffe Oparanya and his lawyer Ken Nyaundi.
“The decision of EACC not to comply with the DPP’s directive that the file be closed and the case terminated was informed by the Commission’s detailed reasons in its response to him, including the cogent evidence on record, which the DPP had earlier found sufficient in granting consent to prosecute the suspects for conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, abuse of office, conflict of interest and money laundering,” Ethics and Anti-Corruption wrote on X.
The Commission emphasized that the allegations by Hon. Wycliffe Oparanya’s Advocate and co-suspect, Ken Nyaundi, that they acted with malice and misled the National Assembly about the existence of a corruption case against Oparanya is false and without merit.