DPP Keriako Tobiko sets up team to review parallel Tatu City probe files

NAIROBI: A team has been formed to review two files over allegations of fraudulent transfer of shares and change of directorship of Purple Saturn Properties, a firm at the centre of Tatu City's ownership legal battles.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko wants the multi-agency team which brings together the Presidency, ODPP, the police, Kenya Revenue Authority, National Intelligence Service, the Financial Reporting Centre and Assets Recovery Agency to probe the files forwarded by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

He wants them to look into the circumstances surrounding the matter including personal allegations of impropriety against officers accused in the saga.

The conduct of police, and the now controversial investigations into ownership of the multi-billion Tatu City project will be independently probed.

Submission of two files with different findings on the same subject has raised questions about the investigations with lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi sensationally claiming that police had been compromised to implicate his clients.

In a letter to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Secretary Halakhe Waqo, Tobiko says the issues raised on the integrity of the investigations and the person and conduct of DCI are grave.

"In the two files, the DCI makes diametrically conflicting, opposed and irreconcilable findings and recommendations," said Tobiko in the letter dated March 15.

He said he would appoint another team in his office to review and re-evaluate the files once they are submitted.

In his letter, Abdullahi asked the DPP to direct the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinet to undertake fresh investigations into the Tatu City saga.