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My reputation is at stake: Ex-Lands boss says in EACC suit
Former lands commissioner Sammy Komen Mwaita.
Former Lands Commissioner Sammy Mwaita had hoped for a peaceful retirement, but a litany of cases by the anti-corruption commission has ensured that he has none of that.
And now he has taken the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to court, challenging the civil cases it has filed against him over the alienation of land parcels during his tenure.
Mr Mwaita alleges that the EACC continues to pursue several cases against him in the Environment and Land Court (ELC) to recover lands and properties that he lawfully alienated within his mandate as Commissioner for Lands, claiming that the alienation was tainted by fraud.
In his petition to the ELC in Mombasa, Mr Mwaita, who has also sued the Attorney General (AG), has listed 15 land-related cases in which he has been sued by the anti-graft agency.
Mr Mwaita says he has been branded a criminal, untrustworthy, corrupt and unfit to hold public office and that his human dignity as enshrined in the Constitution has been eroded and his reputation tarnished.
The petitioner is seeking a declaration that the acts he committed in the course of his then duties as Commissioner of Lands were lawful and that they bind all arms of government.
He is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the EACC from continuing to prosecute the cases brought against him as a result of his actions when he was Commissioner of Lands.
"The petitioner has been rendered almost destitute due to the astronomical fees he has to pay to legal advisers to defend him in the various cases brought against him by the second respondent (EACC)," says Mr Mwaita.
He says it is incumbent on the AG to provide the EACC with correct advice that his actions in making grants and dispositions while holding the office of Commissioner for Lands were within his mandate and therefore lawful.
He adds that any third party who benefited from the actions had acquired a good title and that the AG had failed in his duty (to advise).
Mr Mwaita also says the EACC has violated his right to equal protection and benefit of the law by suing him for acts that were lawful and within his mandate while in public office.
"By dragging the petitioner to court and falsely alleging that his actions in making grants and dispositions in respect of lands and properties belonging to the government were fraudulent, abuse of office and breach of public trust, the petitioner has been stripped of his dignity," says Mr Mwaita.
Mr Mwaita, who is a businessman, was also the member of Parliament for Baringo Central constituency between 2008 and 2017.
The petitioner says that in the exercise of his mandate and in line with his duties then conferred by various (now repealed) Land Acts, he made several grants and disposals of land and property belonging to the government to third parties throughout the country.
He is also seeking a declaration that the EACC erred in law and fact in instituting civil proceedings against him personally to recover lands and properties which were the subject of grants and dispositions made while he was in public office and in the discharge of his duties.
The case has been set for hearing on 9 October.
