Tana River County’s Lands and Urban Planning Chief Officer, Francis Malibe,is said to have bolted into hiding, narrowly escaping arrest by sleuths from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) in a high-stakes anti-graft operation mounted by the commission.
Malibe ,arguably an untouchable figure in the county’s land administration ,now finds himself at the center of a major corruption storm.
According to EACC spokesperson Mr Stephen Karuga, the embattled chief officer is wanted for demanding bribes from residents of Garsen and Minjila before granting approvals for land surveys, ownership transfers, and plot allocations.
As dawn broke, EACC officers swooped into his residences in Malindi and Hola, recovering a trove of, what they say is “damning documents set to expose a network of administrative rot.”
Simultaneously, a team combed through his office at the Department of Lands and Physical Planning in Hola, carting away files believed to hold the blueprints of an elaborate corruption scheme.
“He ran,” Karuga confirmed. “But he cannot hide forever. We are closing in.”
Investigators believe that Malibe used two private firms ,Oscar Zulu India Lima Contractors, where he is a director, and Pembe Limited, in which he is a shareholder ,to “launder bribes disguised as payments for services never rendered.”
The EACC is also pursuing Malibe over a staggering amount of unexplained wealth. Initial audits suggest the sudden ballooning of his assets is inconsistent with his declared income, “pointing squarely to corruption.”
“The operation has already yielded key evidentiary material,” Karuga stated. “And once investigations are complete, prosecution, asset recovery, and forfeiture will follow.”
The explosive raid has reignited calls for justice in a county long plagued by mismanagement and opacity.
“Tana River is not just corrupt ,it is a crime scene,” thundered John Dhadho, Chairperson of the Tana River Civil Society Network. “What happened today is long overdue. The people are tired. It’s time to clean house.”
Thursday’s operation comes on the heels of a similar raid targeting Kilifi County’s Chief Procurement Officer Prisilla Mwaka Munga, as EACC ramps up pressure on high-ranking officials with questionable wealth.