Stolen Kilifi billions probe to question Central Bank officials

In what is the biggest county scam on record, the Kilifi County Assembly team investigating the theft of more than Sh1 billion in public funds intends to extend investigations to the Central Bank.

The net is also being cast wider to include the county’s Integrated Financial Management and Information System (Ifmis) as its parliament seeks to unravel the loss of what could be more than Sh1.18 billion.

Speaker Jimmy Kahindi, who chairs the special oversight committee probing the theft of what was at first though to be Sh51 million, said on Wednesday that his team would summon Central Bank managers to explain how the money was transferred from the Kilifi County government account to private ones without the financial management system being hacked.

Briefing journalists in his office in Malindi on Wednesday, Mr Kahindi said investigations into the scandal indicated wide collusion.

“We started our investigations with 10 suspects in Kilifi County whose passwords were used to transfer the money to bank accounts of five companies in Nairobi,” he said, adding that the scandal involved numerous graft networks.

“We will delve into it and the suspects outside the county,’’ said the Speaker. He added that Governor Amason Kingi had named the directors of five companies based in Nairobi, into whose accounts the money was fraudulently transferred.

SUMMON CBK OFFICIALS

The House oversight team will summon the Ifmis and Central Bank of Kenya officials and bank managers for questioning, he added.

The 10 suspects he referred to are senior county officials whose passwords are said to have been used to steal the money. The officials, who have been suspended, appeared before Mr Kahindi’s team on Tuesday and testified behind closed doors, saying they feared for their safety because they intended to name some of their bosses.

Mr Kahindi questioned why no arrests were yet to be made though the names and locations of some suspects were well known.

He added that the county would be forced to ask the Ifmis department to produce the Internet protocol (IP) addresses. This is the number assigned to a computer to communicate with others.

“The IP address of computers used and time will show who made the transactions.”

According to the Speaker, Governor Kahindi and County Secretary Owen Baya had confirmed from the Ifmis department that no hacking took place to obtain the 10 passwords used to transfer the funds.

“At some point, the Ifmis department was asked to produce the IP address but claimed it was too bulky and required time,” he said.

And on Wednesday, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission boss Halakhe Waqo said the agency and seven others had moved in to investigate the scandal.

Mr Waqo promised a quick investigation into theft said to have been executed between 2015 and 2016.

INVESTIGATE SCANDAL

“EACC has moved in to investigate the scandal as part of the multi-agency team. The information communication technology section analysis is at an advanced stage and will be used to build a case. Investigations will be expedited,” Mr Waqo told the Nation.

He denied that some of the commission’s officers were part of the scam.

He named the multi-agency team: the Kenya Revenue Authority, Director of Public Prosecutions, Asset Recovery Agency, Financial Reporting Centre, National Police Service and National Intelligence Service.

During Tuesday's session, Mr Kahindi confirmed that an officer told his team that it was possible the county had lost more than Sh1.18 billion, “although he did not give documentary evidence to support the allegations”.

However, the Speaker said the county assembly team had records of the loss of Sh51 million, now being investigated.

“The embezzled funds were initially reported to be Sh30 million, but upon investigation, we found it was Sh45 million, until it was later verified to be Sh51 million,” he added.

The county’s chief finance officer Ben Kai, senior accountant for health Jacob Konde, and Mr Baya, the county secretary, told the committee during questioning last week that a report had revealed that Sh51,209,775 was missing.

Last week, Timothy Malingi, the county’s chief officer for health and one of those suspended, told the committee that someone might have hacked his password to make Internet banking transfers to the bank accounts of private companies.