Migori Governor Okoth Obado has on Wednesday August 26 morning been arrested after he presented himself to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives in Kisii.
The Governor is facing corruption allegation charges alongside four of his children over the misappropriation of Kshs73 million from the county government, with the funds said to have been channeled to the bank accounts of his three children who were studying abroad.
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji on Tuesday August 25 approved the arrest and prosecution of Obado, his three children and 19 others, dealing a staggering blow to the family as the governor is separately battling murder charges.
Obado is likely to be barred from accessing office, a precedent that has already been set in other graft cases.
Also to be charged are directors of 11 companies that Obado and his associates registered soon after he became governor through which they pocketed millions of shillings in “fictitious” contracts.
“The investigations were in respect of Sh73.4 million being sums indirectly received by the governor Migori county through his children who received multiple payments from companies trading with the Migori county government between 2013-2017,” Haji said in a statement to newsrooms.
According to an audit trail by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the companies that were trading with the Migori county government wired Sh38.9 million to the accounts of Obado’s three children.
The money was used as their school fees, upkeep, maintenance and medical bills in Australia, Scotland and United Kingdom.
“The audit trail further disclosed that Sh34, 525,000 was used to purchase a house in Loresho Ridge whose beneficial owner is Everlyne Adhiambo Zachary, the Governor’s daughter,” part of the statement from the DPP disclosed.
The three children who will be charged alongside their father are Achola Dan Okoth, Susan Scarlet Okoth, Jerry Zachary Okoth and Adhiambo Evelyne Okoth.
Governor Obado is also a murder suspect in a case involving the death of heavily pregnant Sharon Ochieng two years ago, a university student who was rumored to have a had an affair with the governor leading to a pregnancy.
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