Lawyer: I don’t own Integrity Centre

A city lawyer has denied owning the Integrity Centre building as alleged by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Mr Ahmed Adan, a partner in Wetang‘ula, Adan and Makokha Company Advocates, said he does not own the iconic building that houses the EACC offices.

“It is common practice for lawyers to hold property in trust for their clients. That does not mean the property belongs to me. The allegations made against me and my family by EACC officers are complete falsehoods,“ he said.

EACC officers investigating ownership of Integrity Centre alleged in documents seen by The Standard on Sunday that the building is owned by Mr Adan and his wife Asha.

The anti-graft commission started investigations into the ownership of the building after its owner, Tegus Ltd, said it would not renew EACC‘s lease which expires on June 31.

The building is at the heart of wrangles that have split EACC down the middle. Commission chairman Mumo Matemu last month suspended deputy chief executive officer Michael Mubea on grounds that he (Mubea) had helped Tegus acquire the building illegally.

However, the company‘s lawyer Stephen Kipkenda said the Integrity Centre legitimately belongs to his client, who decided not to renew EACC‘s lease after some of its officials tried to forge the title of the land on which the building stands. In letters of complaint to Matemu and CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro, Kipkenda alleged that EACC vice-chairman Irene Keino and investigator Kipsang Sambai were behind the scheme.

“When their plot failed, they created a smokescreen to cover up what they were doing. With these phony investigations, they are using institutions to harass innocent private businessmen,“ he said.

Undue attention

Kipkenda said senior officials in the Ministry of Lands were involved in the plot.

“They erroneously thought the title to the land had expired, so they forged a new title deed. When they were caught, they tried to change the story by purportedly investigating the shareholding of my client and whether the shareholder has paid all the loans. Why should a private company going on about its work lawfully be harassed unduly by EACC?“ he said.

When asked who the owner of the building is, Adan said:“My client is a private person and he does not want undue and unwarranted public attention.”

He said his client had paid in excess of Sh700 million to redeem Integrity Centre from the Deposit Protection Fund Board, which took over the building after the collapse of Trust Bank in 2001.

It has also emerged that one of the EACC commissioners approached a lawyer representing Tegus Ltd last year and unsuccessfully attempted to extort a bribe in order to have investigations in to the building‘s ownership stopped.

Sambai alleges that Mr Mubea told him to cease investigations in to the case following Kipkenda‘s complaint. “Sometime in May 2014, the Director-Investigations asked me to cease investigating the matter until further notice,“ said Mr Sambai in a letter he send to Matemu and which The Standard on Sunday has seen.

Mr Adan questioned why Matemu would communicate secretly with a junior officer without the knowledge of his bosses.

This week, Matemu wrote to the National Lands Commission (NLC) to clarify Integrity Centre‘s ownership, a move that Adan termed as a “game of musical chairs.” It has also been revealed that although Tegus first wrote to EACC CEO Halakhe Waqo in April 2014, informing him that it will not renew the lease, Matemu only replied to the letter in February this year.

Under pressure

No reason has been given for the inordinate delay in responding to the allegations Tegus made against EACC officers, which could have resolved the issue much earlier.

This week, Ms Keino came under increasing pressure after the Commissison for Administration of Justice said she had irregularly bought two houses from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Embakasi‘s Nyayo Estate.

The Ombudsman said Ms Keino bought the houses outside the NSSF‘s deadlines and at a time when EACC was investigating allegations of impropriety at the fund. A parliamentary committee failed to adopt a report recommending the sacking of Matemu and Ms Keino.