“Our clients who are public servants have been subjected to public ridicule, humiliation, opprobrium and obloquy,” Rachier and Amollo Advocates stated in a letter written to Matemu
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 8 – Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok is the latest county chief executive to threaten legal action against the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for defamation over the now-infamous ‘list of shame’.
Nanok who together with his Finance Chief Paul Ekwom were included by the EACC on a list of public officials under investigation for corruption have given the Commission chairman Mumo Matemu until Thursday to apologise and admit liability for character assassination over what they say are unfounded accusations.
Failure to which they say they will turn to the courts for restitution.
“Our clients who are public servants have been subjected to public ridicule, humiliation, opprobrium and obloquy,” Rachier and Amollo Advocates stated in a letter written to Matemu on their behalf.
The two are included in the EACC Report on the Current Status of Corruption Matters Under Investigation to the President of March 20 on suspicion of irregularly paying out Sh14 million for a bridge on which no work was done.
“The said statements, which you knew or ought to have known, were wholly untrue,” Nanok and Ekwom’s advocates defended, “were given to the President of the Republic of Kenya and to Parliament and were widely publicised both in print and electronic media.”
The letter does not however quantify the compensation they are therefore seeking through EACC’s acceptance of liability for what they lawyers argue was the, “negligent, careless and irresponsible act of publishing a highly defamatory but wholly untrue matter concerning them.”
Nanok is the latest to join the list of CORD governors who have threatened to move to court over their inclusion in what has become popularly known as the list of shame and who claim it is simply meant to drive the political agenda of the ruling coalition at their expense.
In legal correspondence seen by Capital FM News, Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho and Garissa Governor Nathif Jama have threatened court action against the EACC over their inclusion in the #ListOfShame on the basis of what they say are baseless accusations which the integrity police could have easily disproved prior to publication and which would have spared them humiliation.
READ: Joho, Jama threaten court action against EACC
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