The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday arrested Bomet governor Hillary Barchok over allegations of theft of public funds and conflict of interest.
Governor Barchok was arrested during a morning raid on his residence in Bomet by EACC detectives which said that it is investigating alleged corruption in his administration.
Prof Barchok is the first governor in President William Ruto’s Rift Valley backyard to be arrested by the EACC since the August 2022 general elections.
“The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission confirms today that the commission conducted a successful operation targeting Bomet governor Hillary Barchok, eight county officials and two contractors who are under investigations for conflict of interest and theft of county funds,” EACC chief executive officer Abdi Mohamud said on Thursday.
Mohamud added that the governor and his co-accused are being investigated for the fraudulent payment of Sh1.4 billion to suppliers and contractors who are senior employees of the county government of Bomet.
The governor who was arrested after a raid that lasted about three hours, was later escorted to the county headquarters where his offices were ransacked by the detectives under police guard.
The offices at the county headquarters were deserted, as officials had been barred from entering the area and police had been on standby since morning.
Prof Barchok is expected to be escorted later to the EACC regional offices in Nakuru to record a formal statement.
The governor’s office has yet to issue a statement on the raid and arrest, which took the residents by surprise.
The commission has been investigating suspicious transactions in the county for the past seven months, leading to the arrest of an engineer – Victor Cheruiyot – who was allegedly found with 121 company and county stamps.
According to the EACC, 100 official stamps linked to the case were seized from the road engineer’s home and a further 21 from his county office.
The allegations relate to the purchase of 12 pieces of road construction equipment, which led to a staggering Sh373 million discrepancy in the county government’s financial records.
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