Wajir Governor advisor Jeff mworia kithinji has told court that the cheques for Sh 26.1 million are not recorded in the cheque register for two reasons.
Kithinji told the trial magistrate this was because the cash book and cheque register were with the auditors and because it would have been quite fishy of him to the auditors to recall the cash book and the register as it would have appeared as an intention to alter the registers.
“Since I was doing it in good faith, I clearly, mentioned to them that all we needed was the critical documents which was the check book that was not utilised which I would then return to them the copies of the checks and vouchers of the payments that the county was planning to make,” Kithinji testified.
He also added that he did not have clear sight of the chronology and he would not have wanted to interfere with it for purposes of accounting.
The court heard that decisions were being made at a policy level where he was not involved.
“All appointments are at policy level that lies with the Chief officer finance and the CEC finance,” the accused testified.
The accused stated that he personally did not record a statement but l had a conversation where he was invited to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on two different dates where EACC took recordings.
According to Kithinji, because of how the money flows into the county, mostly in lamp sums you will always find that there is backlog. It requires individual posting of entries. “This is matching the check numbers with beneficiary vouchers assigned to it at the point of payment.”
Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdi had early this year testified that he was not aware who issued instructions for the withdrawal of Sh 28.1 million neither does he know who received the money or where it went.
“I did not receive the money or a portion it. I did not issue instructions for the withdrawal to secretary CEC finance for the overdraft.
According to the Governor, after hearing of the allegations he contacted CEC finance who informed him that the funds were used pay casuals and operations. He added that he was informed via phone and did not receive any written communication.
County auditors however said they were not aware of the same after counter-checking with them.
The accused persons are charged with conspiracy to embezzle Wajir County public funds amounting to Sh 26 million.
