Another brazen case of corruption has been unearthed after it emerged that Homa Bay county assembly clerk Bob Kephas Otieno wired Sh26.2 million from the county coffers into his wife’s bank account.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC) alleges that Kephas transferred the cash to a firm owned by his wife Everline Awino for supplying nothing.
In documents filed in court, EACC claims the money was disguised as payment for goods and services which were never supplied.
EACC investigations show that the money was transferred in five tranches within five months in 2016 to the accounts of Nyangume Enterprise, owned by Awino.
The first payment of Sh4 million was made on August 18, 2016. A week later, another Sh1.24 million was wired into the account at Equity Bank.
On September 9, 2016, a third payment of Sh2.2 million was made. Between October 17, 2016, and December 17, 2016, an additional Sh14 million was transacted.
On December 21, 2016, Sh3 million was transferred to the account before another Sh1.8 million was added on January 26 last year.
According to EACC, part of the loot was later transferred to Kephas account in what the agency calls a collusion between husband and wife to defraud the county.
On August 20, 2016, just two days after the assembly made the first payment to Awino, she transferred Sh600,000 to her husband’s account.
She again transferred another Sh150,000 to his account on November 5, 2016.
EACC has filed a recovery suit for the Sh26.2 million which they claim was fraudulently obtained. The agency also froze Awino’s business accounts but only Sh636,200 was in the account at the time the commission got the freezing orders.
Kephas, who is the assembly’s accounting officer who approves all payments, is among seven county officials whose arrest and prosecution was recently ordered by Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji.
