Officials quizzed on school cash

• Secondary education boss and assistant director present themselves at KACC

Two top education officials on Monday recorded statements with the anti-corruption agency over the loss of free school funds.

The director of Secondary Education, Mrs Concilia Ondiek, and assistant director Patrick Aghan presented themselves at the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission offices where their fingerprints were taken. The two are expected to appear in court on Friday.

Another assistant director, Mr Francis Kimosop, was also expected at the commission’s Integrity Centre head office and is likely to be charged alongside the two.

This will bring to six the number of officers in the ministry charged with corruption-related cases since the free primary education scandal was exposed last year.

Attorney-General Amos Wako had ordered the arrest and prosecution of the officials named in the loss of more than Sh100 million last year.

The officers were found to have organised fictitious workshops and forged documents while accounting for imprests they had taken from the ministry.

The summons to appear before the court were issued then, but the prosecution claimed it was unable to get hold of the officers.

Last week, three of the officials were arraigned in court. The three, among them the assistant director of Education, Mr Enos Meshack Magwa, were charged with fraud of more than Sh14 million intended for the organisation of management workshops for secondary schools in various regions.

Mr Magwa’s co-accused were Ms Christine Chacha and Mr Thomas Odhiambo.

They denied all the charges and senior principal magistrate Lucy Nyambura released them on a cash bail of Sh500,000 each or a bond of Sh1 million each.

On the day the three officers appeared in court, Education minister Sam Ongeri disclosed to a parliamentary committee that the government was preparing to compensate donors the money that had been lost.