DPP, EACC urge court to dismiss Yatani's challenge of Sh1.2b probe

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Tuesday urged the court to dismiss former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani Kanacho case challenging a Sh1.2 billion probe.

The case was scheduled to be heard before High Court Judge Chacha Mwita. However, the former CS and his legal team failed to attend.

The DPP urged the court to dismiss the case due to Yatani’s failure to prosecute it, while EACC requested Justice Mwita to issue a notice for Yatani to explain why the case should not be dismissed.

In his case, Yatani, along his wife Dr Gumato Yatani, claimed that raids on their homes in Karen and Marsabit were illegal.

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He argued that a warrant issued by the magistrate’s court granted EACC officers a “blank cheque” to seize items unrelated to the probe.

Although he did not expressly state so, he accused EACC officers of theft. He alleged that they walked away with items such as jewelry, cash and documents that were not recorded in any inventory.

Yatani said that the anti-graft body sought a warrant of arrest on April 22, 2024 on the basis that it was investigating the embezzlement of public funds, procurement irregularities and irregular award of tenders by Marsabit County.

According to him, EACC stated that its focus was on Sh1.2 billion loss between 2013 and 2024.

He stated that the commission further claimed that companies associated to him traded with Marsabit and received the money for the 11 years. In addition, Yatani said that EACC told the magistrate’s court that the amount was received in form of kickbacks and cash money.

Yatani narrated of a similar ordeal to former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who claimed that officers got him in bed and bundled him into their vehicles.

According to the former CS, EACC officers got to his Karen house at exactly 5am while they were asleep, forcibly entered the house, woke him, Dr Gumato and children up and confiscated all their phones. He also claimed his domestic helpers, who were in their servants’ quarters, were not left out of the ordeal.

No inventory

“The 1st respondents did not prepare an inventory of the items that they seized and or confiscated during their raid of the petitioners’ Karen residence. They chose to prepare the same at their premises whereupon the petitioner was coerced to sign the same as a pre-condition for his release,” claimed Yatani.

At the same time, he said that the officers also raided his wife’s office at Kanacho Nomadic Education Foundation, which at the time was closed.

“Yet again, the 1st respondent did not make a record or inventory of what they took from the 2nd petitioners’ offices. Further, during the raid, the 1st Respondent threatened two cleaners working at the 2nd petitioner’s office aforesaid and attempted to force one of the cleaners to receive and sign the search warrant,” court papers filed by his lawyers Awele and Company Advocates read in part.

According to Yatani, the raids were unsupervised. “The 1st respondent’s officers may have planted fabricated evidence to frame the petitioners,” he said adding that in his Marsabit home, there was no one to witness or hold the officers to account.

He asserted that the raids had nothing to do with a criminal probe. Instead, he claimed that it was a well set-up scheme to embarrass and humiliate him in public.

The former CS stated that the commission had pre-organized the presence of the media to witness his alleged arrest.

Yatani was Governor for Marsabit before being appointed to the Labour docket and later Treasury as the Cabinet Secretary, under former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime.

The Judge gave Yatani one more chance to prosecute his case.