Baringo County officials created fake committees, embezzled funds in the name of allowances

EACC South Rift Regional Manager Ignatius Wekesa has confirmed that the suspects are set to appear at the anti-graft body’s office in Nakuru on Monday for grilling.

The officials are reported to have irregularly created extra committees and split two others into two each. They created 6 new committees, outside the limit established by the law.

“This was meant to embezzle public funds since each Committee has members entitled to sitting allowances. The County Assembly officials also embezzled funds by claiming subsistence allowances for events that were not held,” the commission reports.

According to EACC, those summoned for grilling include the Baringo County Assembly Speaker, Clerk, Deputy Clerk, Director of Finance and Accounting and Committee Clerks.

They will be appearing before EACC detectives in Nakuru this week.

Also set to appear before the commission are suspects from Nakuru County, who are under investigation in relation to Ksh.27M procurement fraud in the acquisition of sports kits and equipment.

In this case, companies allegedly owned by top county officials were irregularly awarded contracts and received payments for the supply of substandard equipment.

In a different graft case set to be handled by EACC, suspects from Bomet County will be investigated for alleged embezzlement of public funds in the procurement of Ksh.373M road construction equipment.