Starehe Constituency Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) aspirant Steve Mbogo risk being disqualified for falling short of the Leadership and Integrity requirement after it emerged he has an ongoing conviction over defilement charges.
Our investigations revealed Mbogo should be serving a two decade jail term after he was convicted in 2009 for defiling a 15 years old juvenile at Javian Apartments in Kileleshwa.
Mbogo was charged alongside Clara Njoki who the prosecution said was complicit of the crime.
Following his conviction, it remains unclear how Mbogo, then identified as Stephen Mbogo Ndwiga managed to escape from Industrial Area Prison and acquired new identity of Steve.
Chapter Six of the constitution on Leadership and Integrity outlines stringent threshold a state officer must attain for him or her to qualify to occupy the office.
The Leadership and Integrity Act developed a self-declaration form for aspirants, which the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (Eacc) assesses before clearing a candidate.
They are asked to declare if they have ever been convicted of any offence and sentenced to serve for at least six months, misused public resources, removed from register of members of professional organisations, dismissed from employment due to integrity, or whether they had been subject of criminal or disciplinary proceedings as public officers.
We established the matter was reported at Kileleshwa police station and a report made on the Occurrence Book (OB), reference 36/15/8/2008. Another OB number was indicated as 33/20/8/2008.
The Criminal Register number was indicated as 142/89/2008 Defilement Contrary to Section 8 (1)(3) of the Sexual Offences Act Number 3 of 2006 Initially the matter was being investigated by Constable Robinson Tonui.
The offence allegedly took place on August 3, 2008 at around 12.30pm at Javian Apartments along Ole Kejuado Road, Kileleshwa.
The matter was taken to the Kibera Law Courts, Court File number 1330/2009.
On October 9 the same year, according to police records seen by the writer, the matter was taken over by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the lead investigator was Chief Inspector Chacha Okwach.
Politicians with ongoing criminal cases, including those battling corruption and hate speech charges, are among those targeted to be locked out of the August General Election in an elaborate bid by vetting agencies to comply with Constitutional requirements on integrity.
Section 73 sub section 1 (a) (ii) (iii) and (iv) stipulates that a public officer must demonstrate respect for the people; bring honour to the nation and dignity to the office and promote public confidence in the integrity of the office.
Section 75 on the Conduct of state Officers further provides that a State officer shall behave, whether in public and official life, in private life, or in association with other persons, in a manner that avoids compromising any public or official interest in favour of a personal interest; or demeaning the office the officer holds.
