Three Wajir county officials and a bank manager were on Monday charged with graft involving Sh26 million imprest money.
Daud Abdullahi (economic planning executive), Ahmed Sahal (county secretary), Jeff Mworia (acting county public service head) and Sayid Ibrahim (Kenya Commercial Bank branch manager) pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzling public funds.
Appearing before Milimani Anti-corruption Magistrate Dauglas Ongoti, the four are alleged to have withdrawn the money from Kenya Commercial Bank, Wajir branch, on October 9. Abdullahi faced a separate count of abuse of office and failure to manage public property.
“Between October 5 and October 9, within Wajir County, Abdullahi you used your office to confer a benefit of Sh26.1 million to Jeff Mworia by unlawfully authorising him as a sole signatory of the County Government of Wajir imprest account,” the charge read in part.
Sahal also faced a separate charge of abuse of office in which it was claimed that he used his position to confer a benefit to Mworia by purporting that County Executive Committee had appointed him the signatory of the imprest account.
Mworia faced four other counts, including fraudulent acquisition of public property. Ibrahim got into trouble with the State for allegedly clearing cheques that did not bear the required signatures.
The court released the four on a Sh2 million bond each with a surety of the same amount or alternatively deposit Sh1 million cash bail.
By The Standard
