Kilifi county officials grilled following 'disappearance of Sh45 million'
Rachel Musyoki (left), who is Kilifi's County Executive Committee Member for Health, the county's Governor Amason Kingi (second from left), Abbas Gullet (second from right), who is the secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, and Timothy Malingi, the Chief Officer of the county's Department of Health, in Kilifi in October, 2016. PHOTO | CHARLES LWANGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Ms Rachel Musyoki, who is the executive for Health, and chief officer Timothy Malingi were questioned for six hours by the oversight committee chaired by Speaker Jimmy Kahindi, over their possible roles in the loss of the money.
The two could not explain how transactions were approved and money deposited in different accounts with ‘‘unknown’’ names.
Two senior officials of the Kilifi county government were on Thursday grilled by an Assembly team following the “disappearance of Sh45 million” from the Department of Health's bank account.
Rachel Musyoki, who is the County Executive Committee Member for Health, and the department's Chief Officer Timothy Malingi were questioned for six hours by the oversight committee chaired by Speaker Jimmy Kahindi over their possible roles in the loss of the money.
The two could not explain how transactions were approved and money deposited in different accounts with ‘"unknown" names.
They had been summoned as it emerged that the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) had also launched investigations into the loss of more than Sh30 million.
George Ojowi, the EACC's deputy director in the upper coast region, said a multi-agency team led by the banking anti-fraud unit had been sent to the county to follow up on the matter.
“The Kenya Revenue Authority and the Asset Recovery Agency will also assist in the investigation of accounts belonging to two companies said to have received the county funds,” he said.
Dr Malingi told the committee he suspected a hacker had obtained the password for the bank account and used his name to transfer the money in transactions said to have been done at night.
“I learnt that I had approved the bank transactions from the financial accountant,” he told the team.
