5 senior Kebs staff charged with stealing Sh26.3m, freed on bail
Geoffrey Ngari, Pauline Wamalwa, Martin Nyakiamo, Augustine Wachira and Rose Wangui, senior employees of the Kenya Bureau of Standards, at the Mombasa Law Courts on September 21, 2020 over theft of Sh26.3 million.
What you need to know:
- Geoffrey Wandeto, Pauline Wamalwa, Martin Nyakiamo, Augustine Wachira and Rose Wangui were also charged with conspiracy to defraud Kebs of the money.
- The accused are regional accountant, assistant accountant, regional manager, quality assurance manager, all for the Coast region, and Nairobi headquarters principal accountant, respectively.
- The five pleaded not guilty and were each released on Sh2 million bond with a surety of similar amount or Sh500,000 cash bail.
Five Kenya Bureau of Standards employees were on Monday charged with stealing Sh26.3 million from the agency.
Geoffrey Wandeto, Pauline Wamalwa, Martin Nyakiamo, Augustine Wachira and Rose Wangui were also charged with conspiracy to defraud Kebs of the money.
The accused are regional accountant, assistant accountant, regional manager, quality assurance manager, all for the Coast region, and Nairobi headquarters principal accountant, respectively.
Appearing before Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Christine Ogweno, the five were charged with knowingly entering false statements of money received and used in the cashbook, for the Kebs account held at National Bank of Kenya’s Nkrumah Road branch in Mombasa County.
They also separately faced abuse of office charges.
The five pleaded not guilty and were each released on a Sh2 million bond with a surety of a similar amount or Sh500,000 cash bail.
The offences
The prosecution said the offences were committed between July 1, 2017 and October 31, 2018.
The court heard that the money came into their possession by virtue of their employment.
The five allegedly conspired to deposit the money into an operations account instead of a revenue account, both held at NBK, for purposes of gaining access to the money.
Ms Wangui and Mr Nyakiamo faced separate charges of neglect of official duties.
Ms Wangui is accused of committing this offence by failing to verify cash books and bank account statements for the Kebs Coast region operations account held at NBK.
Mr Nyakiamo allegedly failed to oversee proper management of revenue at the Coast region office in Mombasa.
The court was told that he unlawfully, and for purposes of gain, allowed money meant for the revenue account to be deposited into Kebs’ operations account.
The prosecution said the alleged omissions by Mr Wangui and Mr Nyakiambo caused Kebs to lose revenue.
Prosecutor Valerie Ongeti did not oppose the accused's’ release on bail or bond but urged the court to consider the seriousness of the offence.
Defence lawyers Eugene Wangila and Pauline Osino had urged the court to release their clients on reasonable terms.
The case will be mentioned on September 30.
