Kenya High Court blocks EACC probe into KTDA commodity loans
The High Court ruled that EACC cannot investigate KTDA’s commodity loan arrangements, stating the matter falls outside the commission’s statutory mandate.
KENYA – The High Court of Kenya has barred the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) from investigating the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) over commodity loan arrangements involving two tea factories, ruling that the anti-graft agency lacks jurisdiction over the contested transactions.
In a landmark judgment, Justice William Musyoka held that KTDA is a private entity and that the EACC’s statutory mandate does not extend to investigating commercial transactions that do not involve public officers, public funds, public resources or allegations of bribery.
The case arose after the EACC issued a notice dated March 31, 2026, directing KTDA Management Services, KTDA Holdings and acting Chief Executive Officer Francis Miano to surrender documents relating to commodity loan facilities advanced to Michimikuru Tea Factory in Meru and Litein Tea Factory in Kericho. The commission warned that failure to comply would attract criminal sanctions.
However, the court quashed the notice and prohibited the EACC from proceeding with the investigation in its current form.
Justice Musyoka stated, “If the allegations of corruption do not relate to bribery, but to other forms of corruption, then the respondent would have no mandate to conduct an investigation into such, as that would fall under the mandate of the police, specifically the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.”
The judge observed that the investigation documents submitted by both parties referred only to allegations of corruption and economic crimes connected to the commodity loan arrangements and contained no reference to bribery.
“I have gone through the documents placed on record by both sides. All of them refer to ‘investigating allegations of corruption in the operation of commodity loans’ and ‘economic crimes and offences’. None of them make reference to bribery,” Justice Musyoka said.
He further ruled, “Any purported investigations, by the EACC, of the applicants, on anything that has nothing to do with bribery, would be ultra vires and in excess of mandate.”
KTDA, which is owned by more than 600,000 smallholder tea farmers across 16 tea-growing counties, argued that the commodity loans were private commercial transactions that did not involve public funds.
The agency also informed the court that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) was already examining the disputed loan arrangements.
“There is an active inquiry, by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations,” KTDA told the court, adding that the police should be allowed to discharge their duties “without undue interference” from the EACC.
The EACC maintained that the allegations disclosed economic crimes and argued that its investigative powers were not restricted to public institutions. Investigator Ishmael Nyamache told the court that “the mandate of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act is not limited to public entities and public officers.”
The ruling settles the dispute in KTDA’s favour while clarifying that, in the absence of bribery allegations, investigations into private commercial transactions fall outside the EACC’s mandate and may instead be handled by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
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