The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) won a major case after the High Court ordered two former National Treasury and Planning officials to repay a total of Sh39.18 million fraudulently obtained as allowances.
In the ruling, Lady Justice Lucy Mwihaki Njuguna found that Robert Theuri Murage and Dorris Nafula Simiyu, illegally received public funds disguised as extraneous, taskforce, entertainment, and other undefined allowances between January 2020 and June 2022.
The court held that Murage fraudulently embezzled Sh20,318,000, while Simiyu was found to have irregularly received Sh18,862,000.
Both amounts said the court, were paid without approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) .
“This court comes to the inevitable conclusion that the allowances that were paid to the Defendants were irregularly and unlawfully paid to them,” said the judge.
“This court is not therefore persuaded by the Defendants contention that the payments were made within the law.”
In partial recovery of the embezzled sums, the court ordered the forfeiture of Sh11,078,601 held in Murage’s Equity Bank account and Sh8,953,988.74 from Simiyu’s National Bank account.
The court directed both defendants to pay the remaining balances of Sh9,239,398.17 and Sh9,908,011.26, respectively, to the EACC.
The EACC moved to court after receiving reports in July 2022 alleging massive embezzlement of public funds through irregular payments within the Treasury.
Subsequent investigations revealed that Murage and Simiyu fraudulently, illegally and irregularly received overlapping, inflated, and unauthorized allowances over the two-year period.
According to EACC, the two received public funds as allowances for purported official duties that were undated, use of a wrong allowance payment rate, unspecified allowances and receipt of allowances without approval of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
During the trial, SRC Principal Officer Jennifer Gitari testified that the payments were not subject to necessary approval.
Gitari said that it is possible for an individual to receive both an extraneous allowance and a taskforce allowance, provided such payments are duly authorized.
However, she said any such payment made without SRC’s advisory is considered illegal and irregular.
Certified Public Accountant Paul Macharia Mugwe, an EACC investigator, also testified that the allowances were duplicated and lacked any proper justification.
“This, therefore, means that the Defendants in receiving the allowances knew or had every reason to believe that they were not entitled to them but they went ahead and received the money,” ruled the court.
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