Police arrest revenue officer, recover Sh400,000 from his house

KAJIADO, KENYA: Police and revenue officers in Kajiado arrested a revenue clerk who had stashed Sh400,000 in his house.

Acting on a tip-off, police pounced on Robert Okoth, a revenue clerk based in Isinya, in his hideout.

“He was collecting revenue and instead of submitting it to the County Government, he used to pocket it,” said James Kimani, the Kajiado OCPD. “The money recovered from him is Sh400,000. We are carrying out more investigations. We have him in our custody and we will be charging him with stealing from his employer.”

The OCPD added that Okoth was also found with police uniform. Okoth previously worked at the Kitengela office.

Njoroge Mwaura the director of Lands and Natural Resources in Kajiado County said that they have been experiencing problems in revenue collection.

“Some of our officers have been stealing from us. As a county government we promised a lot of things to the people. We cannot do that when money is being stolen. Last week, we arrested a man who was in charge of revenue at the Kajiado Bus Park and who has been charged in court.” Immediately he took office, Kajiado Governor Joseph Ole Lenku put revenue officers on notice. He noted that in the previous regime, the county was only collecting sh600 million annually. He gave them a target of sh1.5 billion or risk being sacked.

In December, Governor Lenku cracked the whip and suspended Jonathan Turere, the then Director of Revenue and all sub-county revenue officers.