Days after the boss of a Siaya-based multi-billion-shilling company accused CORD leader Raila Odinga of harassing him, Jubilee officials are now asking Mr Odinga to come clean over the scandal claims. Mr Calvin Burgess, the CEO of Dominion Farms Limited, had claimed that the former prime minister had attempted to eject him from his Sh4 billion farm. During the same press briefing last week, former Alego-Usonga MP Sammy Weya dismissed the claims. Mr Burgess, a US citizen, went ahead to claim that Ruth Odinga, the Kisumu County deputy governor, and other ODM leaders from the region, had frustrated him and his workers at the project. “In 2007 General Election, Raila demanded that I support him politically with large sums of money but I declined as it is against the US law which could have seen my company being fined Sh200 million,” Mediamax quoted him as saying. Defending the investment, Burgess said the project is the largest employer in Siaya – both in terms of wage bill and the number of workers. “This was the poorest place I had ever seen on earth with emaciated children, sickness and death everywhere,” he said. He alleged that trouble began when he refused to fund Mr Odinga’s ODM party, which he said would have been illegal in his home country. “Ruth Odinga pressed us hard to become a dealer in a prime location in Kisumu and we gave in. She took the rice and is yet to pay for it, five years later,” the Nation quoted him saying.
National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale and Jubilee official Raphael Tuju accused Mr Odinga of double standard — for being quick to call press conferences to accuse the Jubilee administration of corruption but was not fast enough to respond when facing similar allegations. The two have now called EACC, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Directorate of Criminal investigations to investigate the matter.