BY MANUEL ODENY
The Anti-Corruption Court has acquitted former TNA leader, Onyango Oloo, and 11 others, in a corruption case involving the LBDA housing project in Mamboleo, Kisumu
This comes after EACC and the DPP filed a motion to dismiss the case. The 6-year sentence was upheld in court
This Happened In Nairobi, Onyango Oloo, Former TNA Secretary General, was representing himself in the case, and claims he is now focusing on seeking justice after his reputation was tarnished, by the EACC and the DPP in a case they have themselves dismissed
“I am going to sit down, relax and will instruct my lawyers on what next to do. This case showed that we had state capture in the fight against corruption,” Oloo told reporters.
Oloo said for the past six years he has been battling 13 counts in court including conspiracy to defraud the tax payer which led to the loss Sh4.5billion.
“After several trials, hearing, more than ten witness the office of the DPP came with the application to withdraw the charges,” Oloo said.
He said EACC was being used to play political games and said the case has issued a lot of questions but “for now all i can say we are great full for the judiciary and there is need to free our country of state capture.”
He said senior politicians in the country have been using the war on corruption to fight real or perceived opponents.
The former Kisumu County Assembly speaker and others were charged afresh over the Ksh.4.1 billion Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) Mall scandal.
Oloo was charged alongside former Lake Basin Development Managing Director Peter Abuok and accused of engaging in a project without prior planning, willful failure to comply with the law relating to procurement, abuse of office among other charges.
They all pleaded not guilty.
Oloo was impeached in September 2019 after being accused of abuse of office, unlawful suspension of MCAs and being linked to Lake Basin Mall scandal.
The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) began investigations into the scandal a complaint received in July 2015, that the cost of the LBDA mall had been inflated from Ksh2.5 billion to Ksh4.1 billion.
In 2019, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said a lot of irregularities had been discovered following the investigation, including collusion between some Board members of the LBDA and Erdemann Properties Limited.
The directors of the company allegedly bribed Oloo with Ksh.17 million and other properties in order to inflate the cost of the project in the interest of the company.
