Five Homa Bay County officials have been fined Sh59.044 million after they were found guilty of embezzling Sh27.8 million. Former assembly clerk Bob Kephers, former Finance chief officer Carolyne Sang’, former majority leader Michael Owino Ooro, former minority leader Isaac Nyandege and former assembly finance controller Maurice Amek were sentenced on Friday after the Anti-corruption court found them guilty of obtaining the money illegally.
Kephers was fined Sh10.3 million, Sang and Amek were fined Sh16,124,278 million while Ooro was fined Sh9,996,000 million. The five are required to pay the fines or serve six year jailterm. Nyandege was fined Sh7.5 million or go to jail for five years.
Each of the accused were charged with 11 counts. In the first count, they were fined Sh500,000 with an alternative of a three year jail term. They had been charged with conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption.
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In the rest of the counts, the accused were convicted depending on the charges against them. The fines are double the amount each person is said to embezzled. In addition, they were all barred from holding public office for a period of 10 years. This means that Nyandege, who had been cleared to vie for the Homa Bay Town East MCA seat may be facing a fresh hurdle.
31people, including MCAs and hotel managers testified in the case. The former officials are believed to have embezzled funds by making fake travel documents and issuing allowances to MCAs and assembly staff, before transferring the monies to their own accounts.
The convicts were given a chance to appeal their sentences as they set off to start serving their jail terms.
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