House team MP on the spot over missing Sh1.9m

An MP embezzled Sh1.9 million when he was a civil servant, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee was told on Thursday.

Tharaka MP Alex Mwiru is said to have embezzled the money together with a clerk in his office while he served as the District Lands Adjudication Officer in Nakuru, Lands permanent secretary Dorothy Angote told the committee.

Mr Mwiru is now a member of the Public Accounts Committee.

Ms Angote said the MP used to make Sh44,724 a month as a civil servant but, within 20 months, the ministry found out that Sh1.9 million had been embezzled in the Nakuru District office.

He and the clerk “jointly and severally” took the money but when plans were made to attach their salaries, Mr Mwiru handed in his resignation.

The PAC is the supreme watchdog committee of Executive spending.

The committee heard that the PS sought to have Mr Mwiru prosecuted in the courts, but Attorney General Amos Wako entered a nolle prosequi.

However, the magistrate had ruled that the MP could be re-arrested and charged for the same offence.