School scam suspects to face charges

Seven senior education officials linked to the loss of Sh103 million will be charged in court on Friday.

Attorney General Amos Wako ordered their arrest following investigations by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, which handed over its findings to him on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Keriako Tobiko, told the Daily Nation the AG had directed the immediate prosecution of the suspects, who are accused of wasting public money on fictitious workshops attended by ghost participants.

They account for the loss of only Sh34 million, but KACC said more investigations into the entire Free Primary Education Programme would be made.

Recommended charges

According to a status report titled “Investigation into Embezzlement of Sh103 million of the World Bank-funded Kenya Education Sector Support Project (KESSP)”, and whose contents were published by the Nation on Wednesday, the charges recommended will include fraudulent acquisition of public property, theft, and abuse of office, among others. The investigation is based on an audit by the Treasury and focuses on 434 payments to 21 officials of the Education Ministry.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whose job is to supervise government ministries, has asked Education minister Sam Ongeri and permanent secretary Karega Mutahi to step aside to allow investigations to be done. But the two have defended themselves, saying the fraud involved imprests by individual officers and, therefore, there was no need for them to step aside.

The officials' day in court comes a day after their boss, Prof Ongeri, revealed that Kenya would refund about Sh91 million to the World Bank and other agencies lost as a result of corruption. He told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that the money would be paid to six main donors to account for the amount misused by his officials in fictitious seminars conducted throughout the country last year.

In turn, the errant officials will be made to repay the amount they embezzled. The donors, among them the UK, America, Japan, Canada, Germany, and Belgium, were the main sponsors of the workshops that were said to have taken place in May and June, just days after the money trickled into the ministry’s coffers.

But the Parliamentary Committee on Education, led by Mosop MP David Koech, queried the refund procedure, saying it was “abnormal” and that it encouraged impunity.

It also questioned why the Ministry of Education conducted workshops to empower teachers yet there was an institution created specifically to do just that — the Kenya Educational Service Institute (KESI). But Prof Ongeri said Kesi did not have the capacity to handle the kind of training programmes offered at the workshops.

Reported by Samuel Siringi, Njeri Rugene, Sam Kiplagat and Benjamin Muindi