Former National Museums of Kenya boss Mzalendo Kibunja charged in Ksh.491M corruption case

Kibunja alongside four other individuals were arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate Victor Wakhumile where they were charged with conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, abuse of office, money laundering, acquisition of proceeds of crime, and financial misconduct among other counts.

Court documents seen by Citizen Digital indicate that the accused conspired to embezzle the amount by arranging to fraudulently include on the payroll the names of persons claimed to be employees of the National Museums of Kenya.

"Between July 2016 and June 2022 within Nairobi City County in the Republic of Kenya, being the Director General, the Director Human Resource, Administration, and the Ag. Director General, Payroll ICT officer and the Payroll Accountant respectively at the National Museums of Kenya, you jointly and knowingly entered into an arrangement to include names of persons purportedly as employees of National Museums of Kenya in the payroll of the said National Museums of Kenya whereupon the sum of Kshs. 491,214,551/= was paid as salaries and gratuity while having reason to believe that the said monies formed proceeds of crime," reads the charge sheet.

The other accused persons include Stanvas Ogalo who was the Director of Human Resources and Administration, Oliver Okinyi (Payroll ICT Officer), Wycliffe Ongata (Payroll ICT Officer) and Oscar Mwaura, a private individual.

They all denied the charges and were released on a bond of Ksh.5 million each. The accused persons were further ordered not to interfere with witnesses, and also deposit their travelling documents with the court.

The case will be mentioned on June 2, 2024 for pre-trial.