Controller of Budget Dr Margaret Nyakang’o has revealed details surrounding her dramatic arrest and arraignment in Mombasa.
She spoke for the first time after she was arrested in Nairobi and was driven to Mombasa where she was arraigned.
According to her, it all started sometimes in October this year when she was summoned to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters and asked to clear some issues over an ongoing investigation.
The officer who called her told her a file had been dispatched from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending her prosecution but her statement was missing.
She went to the DCI and recorded her statement as requested.
One Claudia Mueni Mutungi had complained against Nyakang’o and 10 others in 2016 over the issue that happened at a Sacco that they served.
The ODPP said the probe file was first submitted for perusal and advice on July 6, 2022 and upon perusal they identified some areas that needed to be covered.
Read: Charges Against Controller of Budget Nyakang’o are Frivolous – Raila
On September 2, 2022, the ODPP directed that the said areas be covered before the file was re-submitted on November 14, 2022 and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions vide letter dated December, 1 2022 directed that there was sufficient evidence to charge the suspects.
The file was again re-submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on October 31, 2023 for further directions and upon perusal of the new evidence when a decision was made to charge them.
Come Tuesday December 5, the drama started in Karen, Nairobi, she said.
She said her tribulations originated from a Sacco membership she abandoned as soon as she was appointed as CoB.
She said she has been on leave since the start of the month.
On Monday, December 4, she had been out in Karen playing golf, making her way back home in the evening.
She said that on reaching home, she – in the company of her husband – realized that they were being trailed by a vehicle, whose occupants were police and told them she was needed to record a statement at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD).
She said she persuaded the officers to take the statement from her home office, but they were determined to take the town tour.
Dr. Nyakang’o said one of the officers asked her to dress warmly and she wondered why.
She was taken to the CBK at Banking Fraud Investigations Unit offices in the city.
DCI officers are seconded to CBK.
She was never required to write a statement and the officers told her that they were under instructions to take her to Mombasa. The complaint had been recorded in Mombasa.
Read Also: Controller of Budget Nyakang’o Released on Sh500,000 Bail
Nyakang’o says she told the officers she had not eaten the entire day and they allowed her husband to get her some food.
He also bought the food for the officers who she said were friendly.
The husband was then asked to return home, as she and the DCI team took the long night journey from Nairobi to Mombasa by road.
They arrived in Mombasa on Tuesday morning and she was taken to the CBK Mombasa office where she was handed over to the local DCI officers.
A few hours later, news broke out she had been arrested and would face charges.
That was when it dawned on her that things were thick.
She recalled in 2019, she received a call from a Sacco that needed someone to sit on its board. She expressed interest to one of the officials in Nairobi where she was informed there was a plan to expand the Fountain Enterprise Program Sacco by bringing experts on board.
She was asked to sign up as a member which she did by filling the registration forms. Nyakang’o says she was advised to save up to 100,000 shares by the time of holding of the Sacco’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) when she would be elected to sit on the board.
In October 2019, she was interviewed and vetted for the CoB job and when she learnt she had been successful, she approached the Sacco saying she needed to exit.
She says she converted her savings of about Sh500,000 into two plots of land which she topped up to secure.
She later learned during the investigations into the Sacco that she had been listed as part of the board despite not having been elected in an AGM.
She told the investigator in the case as much who looked satisfied and left.
Nyakang’o says that she is surprised that out of a list of 11 persons listed for prosecution, she was the only one in court in Mombasa. for her, who is after her.
She is among others accused of conspiracy to defraud and operating a Sacco without a license among other charges, and is presently out on a cash bail of Sh500,000.
She is not required to leave office for now.
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