Nine senior Kilifi officials connected to Sh51m theft to be arraigned in court
What you need to know:
- The suspects include eight who have already been suspended by Governor Amason Kingi.
- On Thursday, the nine did not turn up in court in Kilifi as scheduled.
- Their lawyers said their clients were in Mombasa assisting banking fraud detectives with investigations.
Nine senior officials of the Kilifi County government will be charged in connection with the theft of more than Sh51 million from the county’s account at the Central Bank.
The officials, who will be charged with stealing and conspiracy to defraud the county government of the money, include eight who have already been suspended by Governor Amason Kingi and the county’s chief officer in charge of agriculture, Baha Nguma, who is also the acting health chief officer.
On Thursday, the nine did not turn up in court in Kilifi as scheduled, but sent their lawyers, Duncan Nyongesa and Dennis Kimaro.
The lawyers informed Senior Resident Magistrate Leah Wasige that their clients could not make it to court because they were at the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit in Mombasa assisting with investigations.
The lawyers requested the court to move the plea-taking to next Tuesday.
According to the charge sheet, the nine officers are accused of committing the offence between September 19 and October 7, 2016 in Kilifi Town.
The accused, who are also under suspension, are Lenox Mwadzoya (roads and transport inspector), Paul Mwazo (county treasury deputy director), John Kalume (a senior accountant) and Josephine Muramba (education principal accountant).
Others are Johnson Gambia (finance senior accountant), Timothy Malingi (health chief officer), Dickson Tembo (agricultural clerical officer), Jacob Konde (senior accountant officer for health) and Mr Nguma, who is still in office.