The controversial Finland scholarship fund account was not owned and run by the Uasin Gishu County government.
Former County Secretary Edwin Bett told the court that the Uasin Gishu Overseas Education Trust account was neither opened nor operated by the county government, which he said had no access to it.
Testifying before Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ndege on Tuesday, Mr Bett claimed the account was owned by the Uasin Gishu Overseas Education Trust, which was run by some officers from the department of youth, education and sports.
The account, he said, was not subject to Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) but was only run via a policy document which was approved by the county executive.
Mr Bett, who was the chairman of the transition committee, told the court that the account was not among the many accounts owned by the county government that were handed over to the new regime by Governor Jonathan Bii Chelilim.
According to Mr Bett, at least 30 accounts owned by the county government were handed over to the new regime, but the overseas education trust fund account was not one of them.
“The Overseas Trust Account on trial was not one of the accounts handed over during the handing over ceremony after the August 2022 General Election,” said Mr Bett.
Mr Bett, who worked between 2019 and 2024, said the county government did not have access to the bank account, and neither was he a signatory to it.
The court heard that a task force formed by the county to look into the challenges in the programme following the protests by parents who were denied statements when they sought them from the KCB bank.
“I was not privy to how the programme was initiated and how it was run, I learnt of it in the task force formed by the county when parents were protesting their children’s delay to travel abroad,” said Mr Bett.
Mr Bett made the claims during a cross-examination by lawyer Katwa Kigen after testifying in the case in which Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago is charged alongside other people with a conspiracy to misappropriate Sh 1 billion meant for the programme.
The former county secretary, however, could not provide the said policy document as evidence in court.
Defense lawyer Elijah Kibet sought to inform the court that the account was run through the original County Revolving Fund Act 2016, which was amended in 2022 to allow sponsorship of needy students’ education abroad.
According to the lawyer, the county government was at the center of the programme.
The lawyer further faulted the CS for making claims without showing proof that they wrote to the bank requesting for statements, but the application was rejected.
In addition, the lawyer insisted that the county secretary was not privy to all the accounts that were handed over to the new regime.
Mr Bett however, maintained that the Revolving Funds Act was only meant to assist students get an education locally.
The county secretary was testifying as witness number 134 in the case which has a total of 202 witnesses.
