Probe into Sh9bn NYS scam took PS Lillian Omollo by surprise

When she accused National Intelligence Service Director-General Phillip Kameru of exaggerating the rot in the National Youth Service, Mrs Lillian Mbogo Omollo, the Public Service Principal Secretary, appears to have taken her battles to a frontier few would dare.

Perhaps unknown to her, Maj Gen Kameru and the Director of Criminal Intelligence, Mr George Kinoti, had taken it upon themselves — and with the blessings of State House — to investigate the scandal at the cash cow that the NYS had been turned into since its budget was increased from Sh2.5 billion to Sh25 billion.

Last Friday, sources said, some NYS tenderpreneurs met at an office in Liaison House on State House Avenue to plot how to unblock accounts that have been frozen by the Kenya Revenue Authority, which is part of the multi-agency investigation attempting to unravel the payment riddle.

But unknown to them, Mr Kenyatta had decided to act — a promise he made during the eighth Presidential Round Table to businesspeople and investors at State House.

NIGHTMARE

Of all citadels of corruption, the NYS has become President Kenyatta’s nightmare.

This was reflected in the statement from State House last week confirming that he had “confidence in the work of investigative agencies, and in the event any wrongdoing is established…swift prosecution should follow”.

Neither Mrs Omollo nor Mr Richard Benjamin Ndubai, the NYS director-general saw it coming.

“They were actually forced out. It was not voluntary,” said a source close to the investigation.

 “It was a bit naïve of the PS to publicly take on the investigators.”

At 41, Mrs Omollo was one of the youngest PS nominees and had during the vetting struck the committee as “a very knowledgeable person”.

INTEGRITY

“She does not have challenges related to integrity. She was eloquent and understood her staff well,” said Mr Asman Kamama, when presenting her name to the House for approval.

But after two and half years, Mrs Omollo, a former CEO at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, has stepped aside as investigators turn to her on whether Sh9 billion paid out to tenderpreneurs was for services rendered.

When the first NYS scandal of Sh791 million was reported in June 2015, Mr Kenyatta made the blunder of defending Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru saying investigations “had been twisted to meet certain political ends and there is no evidence of loss of funds”.

It was a line picked by Ms Waiguru, now Kirinyaga governor, to survive the crackdown that ensued.

This time, the President appears to have put his trust on the personality of Maj Gen Kameru, a former military intelligence officer, and Mr Kinoti, a detective credited for tracking down criminals and dismantling their networks.

NATIONAL SECURITY ORGANS

By sitting at the heart of the intelligence, Maj Gen Kameru reports directly to the President and is the head of one of the three national security organs, the others being the National Police Service and Kenya Defence Forces.

He also sits at the nine-member National Security Council, which is chaired by the President and which is only attended by three cabinet secretaries: Defence, Foreign Affairs and Interior.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign majoring in Entrepreneurship Studies, Mrs Omollo has a Bachelor of Education degree from Kenyatta University.

She previously worked with United Nations Development Programme, Catholic Relief Services and Southern Sudan Council of Churches.

In taking on Mr Kinoti and Maj Gen Kameru, the PS said the vouchers under investigation were for Sh900 million and that this amount “was not even remotely close to the Sh8 billion that the director-general NIS is claiming lost/stolen/fraudulent”.

Whether she thought her statement would scuttle the NIS and DCI efforts is not clear but spotlight will now turn on her, especially on what she knows as the accounting officer.