Wajir County employees lost millions in scheme with aid of KCB branch manager—EACC

An arial view of Wajir town. (Kulan Post)

By: Kevin Kyalo

NAIROBI—Details are  emergring on why EACC detectives arrested the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB)Wajir branch manager. The detectives are also looking for the head of county treasury who remains in hiding.

According to EACC officials privy to the investigation into how sh 350 million was lost from the county coffers, Siyat Ibrahim—the KCB branch manager—and Jeff allegedly colluded with corrupt individuals to embezzle the money.

Mr Siyat reportedly used his position as the branch manager to wire funds to personal accounts “held by powerful and well connected individuals in Nairobi.”

Kulan Post understands that the money belonged to county employees as part of their contributions to retirement benefit schemes and saccos.

The alarm was initially raised by Lapfund and several saccos in joint complaint to the EACC.

The anti-graft agency is also looking for the head of the county treasury, Jeff Mworia.

“He unilaterally approved payment of sh 26 million from cash office,” the EACC official told Kulan Post in confidence because he is not authorized to leak the fine details of the investigation to the media.

The detectives are looking for Jeff since Friday. On Saturday, they raided his home in Lower Kabete. He was not home, but they arrested his spouse after she destroyed documents the detectives believe was vital into the investigation.

“She destroyed vital documents to conceal the embezzlement, ” a brief media statement by the EACC said on Saturday evening.

The EACC believes that the beneficiaries of the embezzled funds are individuals close to the governor, Mohamed Abdi.

Wajir senator Abdullahi Ali addressing the youths during the youth conference in Wajir. (Courtesy)

The shocking EACC revelations comes a week after the county senator, Abdullahi Kabreta decried of non-openess on how officials spend county funds.

“When I try to enquire for information, nothing comes out of it,” the senator said in an interview with Kulan Post at his KICC office.

Detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Saturday raided the residence of Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdi in Nairobi and Wajir town.

The detectives secured trove of documents they said would aid in the investigation into how sh 350 million was lost since last financial year.

The detectives also unearthed lose of “huge amounts of money that was lost through dubious vouchers.

Speaking to Citizen TV, governor Mohamed Abdi denied EACC detectives collected documents from his homes in Wajir and Nairobi.

“This is a hoax,” he said.