Wycliffe Oparanya Denies Being Arrested By EACC, Claims He Went To Recover His Children's Phones: "Sikushikwa"

• Former Kakamega governor Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya denied being arrested by officials from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC)
• Oparanya confirmed that EACC officials raided his home and questioned him about his firearm ownership, business with Raila Odinga and the amount of cash he had
• The former county boss accompanied the police to the Integrity Centre to retrieve his children’s phones, which EACC officials took from his Butere home

Former Kakamega governor Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya has denied being arrested by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officials.

The ODM deputy leader confessed that the officials had raided his home very early in the morning and asked if he owned a firearm, which he didn't have.

He divulged that they asked what business he has with Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga, and he answered that their only business is politics.

Oparanya added that they also questioned how much cash he had in his home, and he told them and even explained what it was to be used for.

"Those people came to me at 8am, and I opened the door. Do you have a gun here? And I said even I didn’t have a gun, the policeman who was guarding me had a gun. What do I need a gun for?

The second question was, what business do you do with Raila Amollo Odinga? And I don’t do business with Raila, we do politics, and thirdly they asked me how much money I have in the house. I told them I had two million, my child was going to the US, and I was going to buy dollars. They looked all over the house," he said.

Why did Oparanya go to EACC headquarters

The former county chief explained that the only reason he accompanied the police to the Integrity Centre was to retrieve his children's phones.

Oparanya said he was there for hours waiting to be attended to, and it was then that the media assumed he was being interrogated.

"It turned out they had also come to Butere and taken all the phones, even my children’s. Those phones made me go to the integrity centre because the children were crying and wanted their phones back.

They said they had written down the phones they had taken and now they couldn’t return them until I spoke to their boss. That’s why I went to the integrity centre to follow up on my children’s phones. And I waited until they gave me those phones. I was waiting for the phone. It turned out they had also taken my wife, Mama Priscilla’s phone," he said.

EACC says Oparanya being grilled over embezzlement

Earlier, EACC released a statement regarding the alleged arrest of the Oparanya.

EACC deputy executive officer Abdi Mohamud said the former governor was being investigated over the alleged misappropriation of KSh 1.3 billion during his tenure as the Kakamega county boss.

According to the anti-graft agency, preliminary investigations showed that public funds were unlawfully acquired through proxies.