Ezra Chiloba Cleared By EACC Ahead Of Vetting For Ambassadorial Role In US
On September 26, 2023, the Commission received allegations of irregularities in the management of the staff mortgage scheme at the CA.
Marvin Chege 
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has cleared former Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Ezra Chiloba of claims of mismanagement of the regulator's staff mortgage scheme.
The commission found that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations made against Chiloba and other accused officials.
"The investigation established that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation against Ezra Chiloba and other officials of the Authority," said EACC in a letter dated April 4 but released on Thursday, April 11.
On September 26, 2023, the Commission received allegations of irregularities in the management of the staff mortgage scheme at the CA.
EACC head of investigations Pascal Mweu had demanded several documents from CA in a letter dated September 28 to facilitate the investigation.
The letter asked the then acting director-general Christopher Wambua to provide the Treasury audit reports, the authority's mortgage loan policy and loan book and the authorised panel of valuers to aid in the investigation into the abuse of the scheme.
According to the anti-graft agency, the valuers provided a valuation that did not match the government's valuation bringing suspicion to the authority.
"This is to bring to your attention that the matter was closed with no further action pursuant to section 25A of the ACECA of 2003. However, we recommend that the Authority reviews its human resource policy and procedure manual dated February 2023," the EACC said in the letter addressed to the new director-general David Mugonyi.
The Commission highlighted the need to update it in line with the Communication Authority HCA circular number 1B of 2021, dated March 23, 2021.
Chiloba resigned from the Communications Authority on October 19, 2023, which the Authority announced after he submitted his letter to the Board Chairperson, Mary Mungai.
He was on Monday, September 18, 2023, suspended from the authority following a board meeting, which saw Christopher Wambua appointed the Director-General in an acting capacity.
"Following a meeting of the Authority’s Board held on 18th September 2023, resulting in the suspension of the Director General, I am pleased to inform all staff of the appointment of Mr Christopher Wambua as a Director General in Acting Capacity effective today until further notice. I trust that you will accord him the necessary support," Mungai stated then.
As Viral Tea exclusively reported, Chiloba was suspended owing to gross misconduct concerning Ksh662.4 million mortgage scheme graft allegations.
He had applied for and self-approved a Ksh25 million mortgage loan to facilitate the purchase of a property between himself and Jacob Simiyu Wakhungu without subjecting the transaction details to interrogation and approval by a higher authority.
The clearance by EACC is a timely one given that Chiloba is set to undergo vetting for a new ambassadorial role in the United States of America (USA) after he was nominated by President William Ruto.
In a Notification of Presidential Action released on Friday, March 8 by Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, the Head of State chose Chiloba for the position of Consul General of the Republic of Kenya in Los Angeles, California.
