Minister's husband charged with CDF theft

Ferdinand Masha Kenga, husband of Nairobi Metropolitan assistant minister Elizabeth Ongoro, was accused of stealing Sh1.9 million from the Kasarani CDF November 1, 2011. PAUL WAWERU

An assistant minister’s husband has been charged with stealing from a Constituency Development Fund (CDF) kitty.

Ferdinand Masha Kenga, husband of Nairobi Metropolitan assistant minister Elizabeth Ongoro was Tuesday accused of stealing Sh1.9 million from the Kasarani CDF. Mrs Ongoro is also the Kasarani MP.

It was alleged that he committed the offence on February 9 at Cooperative Bank University Way branch within Nairobi County.

The case was consolidated with another in which Washington Gimona Opiyo is charged with obtaining Sh1.9 million through forgery from the Kasarani Constituency Development Fund account.

Mr Opiyo is accused of forging an instruction letter purporting it to be from the MP authorising him to withdraw the money from Co-operative Bank. He is out on Sh250,000 cash bail after denying the charge.

Mr Kenga denied the charges before chief magistrate Gilbert Mutembei and was released on a cash bail of Sh150,000 with the case scheduled for hearing on December 13.

Among those listed as witnesses in the case is the MP as the patron of the CDF committee and it waits to be seen if she will testify against her husband.

The Kasarani CDF has been plagued with controversies with the MP being barred from running the accounts on October 3.

The High Court froze the accounts and stopped a newly-appointed CDF committee from taking office after ruling that serious issues had been raised over the awarding of tenders by the MP.

Justice David Majanja also blocked the CDF board chief executive from effecting any changes to the list of Kasarani CDF officials.

This was after it was claimed that Mrs Ongoro carried out a coup in attempting to oust the legally elected officials and replacing them with others without due regard to legal procedure.

Her attempts to unfreeze the accounts failed after Justice Mohammed Warsame declined her request and directed that the application be heard inter parties.