NYS official denies ties to hotel raided by EACC in Sh2bn probe

A senior National Youth Service (NYS) employee has denied any links with a hotel in Embu that was raided by anti-graft agency detectives in a Sh2 billion probe.  

On Friday the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) announced that it had conducted a raid at the Mavvel hotel allegedly linked to David Mbogo, the Head of Procurement at NYS Training School in Gilgil.

EACC said the operation yielded evidentiary material to support investigations into suspected conflict of interest and abuse of office involving senior NYS officials.

Mbogo has now written to EACC accusing the commission of a smear campaign and failure to conclude investigations that it started in May last year.

In a letter dated April 20, through his lawyer, and addressed to EACC head of investigations, the procurement boss accuses the Commission of continuing to make persistent, erroneous and highly prejudicial statements in relation to him.

“These assertions, as we shall demonstrate, are false, misleading and made in reckless disregard of facts already within your possession,” the letter received at EACC on Monday April 20, reads.

“We state at the outset that the conduct of the commission, taken cumulatively and over time, amounts to a deliberate and sustained pattern of harassment, misrepresentation and abuse of investigative powers.”

Mbogo’s lawyer Onuong’a Makori of Makori & Karimi Advocates has attached a CR12 certificate as to prove that he has no interest in the said hotel.

“This assertion is entirely false, misleading and unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, and is particularly egregious given that your commission has at all material times been in possession of documentation relating to the Hotel, including a CR12 (attached) clearly demonstrating that our client holds no ownership interest in the said entity.”

The attached CR12 shows Naftali Kiberu as the sow director and shareholder of The Mavvel Place Limited.

While accusing EACC of unlawfully targeting and harassing his client, the lawyer questioned why EACC had resorted to get a parallel search warrant from a Nyeri court yet the matter was pending at Milimani law courts in Nairobi where a similar warrant had been lifted.

“Warrants were obtained from the Magistrates Court at Milimani (Criminal) with the alleged offences forming the basis of your investigations stated to have occurred between January 2017 and March 2025, a period during which our client was, as stated above, not in office and had no control, authority or involvement whatsoever,” Makori says.

The lawyer says Mbogo served as Head of Supply Chain Management at the National Youth Service for a period of only twenty-one (21) days from April 17 last year to May 7 the same year, ‘a fact that is now well within your knowledge and is supported and demonstrated by his Letter of Posting’ yet he is under investigation for procurement irregularities of over 10 years.

“This limited tenure is critical, as the allegations your commission seeks to advance relate to a period extending outside this timeframe that is the year 2017 to March last year during which our client neither held office nor exercised any authority over the matters now under investigation," Makori says.

“In or about May last year, your commission conducted a similar raid which was widely and sensationally publicised across its social media platforms. In that publication, the commission alleged that persons under investigation were involved in a purported heist of over Kenya Shillings two billion (Sh2,000,000,000) at the NYS.”

In a manner identical to the present instance, the lawyer says EACC sought to link our him to the premises known as Mavvel Hotel last Friday and to the alleged loss of public funds, going so far as to assert or imply that he is the owner of the said hotel.

“The publications made by your commission in May 2025 and April 2026 are materially identical and further no new facts have been disclosed. This demonstrates that the commission is not engaged in genuine investigation, but rather in recycling allegations for purposes of public sensationalism and reputational damage," Makori says.

Mbogo now wants EACC to retract the statement, desist from further misrepresentation and offer him an apology within seven days by issuing a public statement on X (Twitter), with equal prominence to the early posts.

“Take notice that in default, we have firm instructions to institute proceedings seeking a declaration of constitutional violations, injunctive relief and for damages for reputational injury and defamation. This action shall be taken without further reference to you and all such proceedings shall be at your peril as to costs and incidental consequences.”