The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has refuted reports that it dispatched its officers to the office of lawyer John Khaminwa.
Khaminwa, who is among the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) appeal case lawyers, claimed that two men who identified themselves as police officers attached to the EACC visited his Kileleshwa Offices on Saturday, July 3, afternoon.
Fearing for his life, the 84-year-old Senior Counsel said the visit from the men was an attempt to intimidate him over his submissions in the BBI appeal case.
“They claimed that they had come here to offer protection to me and they made reference to some succession case I handled many years ago. I was suspicious of the two because they did not impress me as human beings who are holding state offices at all,” said Khaminwa.
“They claimed that they were from the anti-corruption agency but I doubted them. What surprised me was that they also asked for some money from one of my assistants. I told them off because I got the impression that they were either trying to see whether they could make use of what happened yesterday in court or they had been sent by someone in a superior office to intimidate me,” he added.
“I made strong submissions before the court of appeal and I still stand by that. We remain optimistic the BBI will be thrown out and we can continue with matters pressing our nation,” said Khaminwa.
On Sunday, the EACC responded saying it did not conduct any operation.
“We wish to notify the public that we (EACC) did not conduct any operation yesterday and media reports suggesting that EACC visited the offices of John Khaminwa Senior Counsel are unfounded,” The Anti-graft body tweeted.
At the same time, Nairobi area police commander Augustine Nthumbi also said there were no officers deployed to Khaminwa’s offices.
“No police officer was sent to raid Khaminwa’s offices on Saturday, but from the allegations, we have launched investigations into his claims,” Nthumbi told reporters on Sunday.
“Why would we be looking for Khaminwa? As we know him, he is a law-abiding citizen and we as the police have no reason to look for him,” he added.
