Wajir County Government officials and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Wajir branch manager accused of conspiring to embezzle Wajir County public funds amounting to Sh 26 million have been charged in Nairobi.
The accused persons are Wajir County Finance Chief Executive finance and economic planning Daud Abdullahi Omar, County secretary and acting head of county public service Ahmed Sahal Omar, Head of treasury and economic adviser to the Governor Jeff Mworia Kithinji and KCB Manager Siyad Ibrahim Mohammed are alleged to have committed the offence between 5th and 9th October 2018.
Abdullahi is accused of using his office to confer a benefit of Sh 26.1 million to Kithinji by unlawfully authorizing him as sole signatory of the County Government of Wajir imprest account.
He faced another charge of failing to comply with applicable laws and procedures relating to management of public funds by designating one authorized signatory in respect of Wajir County Government imprest account instead of the mandatory two signatories as required.
The County Secretary Ahmed Sahal is accused of using his office to confer a benefit to Jeff Mworia Kithinji by purporting that the county executive committee had approved the appointment of the said person to be the signatory of the county’s imprest account.
The County Secretary Kithinji, is accused of using his office to confer a benefit of the above monies he allegedly irregularly withdrew from Wajir County Government standing imprest account.
Kithinji is also charged with fraudulently acquiring the money fraudulently on 9th October at KCB bank, Wajir.
They denied the charges before Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti who granted them a bond of Sh 2 million or alternative cash bail of Sh 1.5 million pending the determination of their case.
Additionally, the accused persons were barred from accessing their office unless accompanied by the investigating officer and ordered them to deposit their passport in court and not travel without court permission.
The case will be mentioned on 10th December for directions and fixing a pre-trial date.
