Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja.
The woes facing Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja Keroche have deepened, after two residents filed a case seeking to freeze her bank accounts over alleged misappropriation of oversight funds in her office.
The move comes days after it emerged that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is investigating allegations of misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds at the office of the Nakuru Senator.
The office is alleged to have misappropriated more than Sh8million oversight funds, in the financial year 2023/2024.
The two individuals - Benson Macharia Kamau and Simon Sangale Nasieku - have filed a suit before a Nakuru Court seeking to freeze an Equity Bank account belonging to Senator Karanja and any other accounts linked to the alleged misappropriation of funds.
"We urge the court to freeze and or rescue forthwith any public funds from any further fraudulent expropriation. We request the court to freeze Senator Keroche's Equity Bank account and any other bank accounts kept secret by her," reads part of the suit papers.
The duo also wants the clerk of the Senate who is enjoined in the matter to be stopped by the court from releasing any funds to the Senator's office, through the Equity Bank account linked to the misappropriation of funds.
The two have sued Senator Karanja and her office manager accusing them of forging signatures and payment vouchers.
In court papers, the two have claimed that on April 5,2024 together with nine other people, they were engaged by the Senator as oversight coordinators for the 11 sub counties in the devolved unit.
They were summoned to the Senator's office where they signed the contract.
However, the claim the Senator together with her office manager forged signatures and payment vouchers indicating that they were paid Sh 30,000 per month each as salary from October 2023 to March 2024.
Justice Samuel Muhonji Mukira certified the matter as urgent and ordered that the applicants to serve Senator Keroche with the suit papers within three days before the matter is heard.
Last week EACC wrote a letter to the Senator's office manager, requesting for documents and information about the matter.
The letter signed by South Rift Regional Manager Mr Ignatius Wekesa noted that the information will assist the commission with investigations, and requested the office to provide original documents for the financial year 2023/2024.
“The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission pursuant to its constitution and statutory mandate as set out in article 252 (1) a (d) of the constitution, section 11 of EACC and section 4 (2) of the leadership and integrity Act is investigating allegation of misappropriation of public funds in respect to the office of the senator,” read part of the letter.
To assist the commission with investigations, the office has been requested to provide original documents of the approved budget estimates, approved supplementary budget, expenditures report and all the supporting documents for the oversight kitty.
It also requested employment letters for oversight coordinators, all correspondence between the senator’s office and parliamentary service commission, and all the disbursements from parliamentary service commission and any other relevant documents.
Finance returns for oversight kitty filed in court papers show that between October 2023 and March 2024, the office used Sh2.1million for salaries, Sh2.27million for public engagements, Sh2.3 million for research and training and Sh1.62million for printing and advertisement.
The office had received Sh8,337,533 during the period as oversight funds.
