A Kenya Railways Cooperation accountant has thrown himself into the frying pan from the fire after messing up a second chance he had been given by his employer.
On 14th January 2022, Patrick Kareithi Ndegwa was charged with computer fraud after allegedly altering the system’s payroll in his favor.
Ndegwa is accused of computer forgery as he intentionally altered the computer data in KRC’s payroll system with intent to have the resultant inauthentic data to be considered as if it was authentic.
The accused is alleged to have committed the offense on diverse dates between July 2019 and November 2021 in Nairobi County.
Ndegwa is also accused of intentionally altering computer data in the KRC payroll system, occasioning the said Corporation unlawful loss of Sh 317,000.
The accused, who has worked with the corporation for 13 years is alleged to have been interdicted from his duty in November 2016, due to a gross misconduct that led to the loss of Sh 1.14 million for KRC.
At the time, he was the assistant financial accountant.
After investigations and disciplinary hearing by the board, Ndegwa was ordered to report back to work in November 2017, but he was to pay 50% of the amount which was lost.
This was to be repaid in monthly installments which would be deducted from his salary.
This went well until January 2020 when the suspect started to interfere with the corporation’s payroll system to subtract the amount he had been ordered to pay.
He had paid a small amount leaving him with a balance of Sh 406,000 which he reduced to reflect to Sh 12,500.
