Charity Ngilu faces probe over burnt cash records

Former Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu testifies at a Mombasa High Court on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

The Senate wants former Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu investigated over a mysterious fire that burnt financial records involving Sh10 billion back in 2019.

Yesterday, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation were asked to put the former governor to task.

The Senate County Public Accounts Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang said the fire that gutted offices in June 2019 after the end of the financial year was questionable and could have been ignited to destroy records on the expenditure of billions of shillings allocated to the county.

Kitui Economic Advisor Ben Katungi, who served as Finance CEC between October 2019 and February 2022 in the Ngilu administration revealed to the committee that financial documents had been moved to a store a few days before the mysterious fire.

“My predecessor Mary Nguli resigned shortly after the mysterious fire. I would like to inform this committee that we did nothing much to account for the Sh9.97 billion allocated to the county whose documentation had been destroyed in the inferno,” said Katungi.

Governor Julius Malombe who appeared before the committee in Nairobi yesterday, said during his first term in office from 2013-2017, he had ensured the county had fire proof and safe cabinets and he could not comprehend how they were gutted by the inferno.

Dr Malombe told the committee he was not aware if investigations were conducted into the fire incident and the fact that the incident happened a few days to end of the financial year, raised questions.

Kajwang argued that there was no way the county’s allocation of Sh10 billion could not be accounted for due to a fire incident and if that was the case, then some people ought to be held accountable.

“This committee would like to know why the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and Directorate of Criminal Investigation have not investigated this incident where Sh10 billion cannot be accounted for, four years later due to some suspicious fire said to have destroyed records,” he said.

The committee, which was dealing with the Auditor General report for the financial years ending June 2020 and 2021 directed the governor to write to the DCI and EACC to launch fresh investigations into the fire incident within 30 days.

Kitui Senator Enock Wambua told the committee the mysterious fire was a grave economic crime and Ngilu should be held accountable to serve as a lesson to other governors who might think of destroying financial documents.

He said this was the second fire during Ngilu’s administration with the first one destroying crucial documents concerning an agricultural project that had issues and the EACC and DCI failed the people of Kitui.

Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo insisted that the Sh10 billion allocation to the county most probably ended up in the pockets of some powerful individuals and the fire incident was just a way of trying to create the impression that it was not easy to find out how the funds were spent.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said the former governor and any individuals who might have information about the fire incidents should be summoned by the committee.

The committee directed Malombe to reconstruct the data lost in the fire by writing to the National Treasury, Controller of Budget and the Central Bank to access the records within 30 days and once they are available all the people who were involved in one way or the other in the matter must be brought to book.

“I would like to assure the people of Kitui county that this committee will investigate this matter, we cannot have more than Sh10 billion belonging to the public not being accounted for on the pretext that fire destroyed some crucial documents, EACC and DCI must tell us what happened,” said Kajwang.

Malombe said the previous administration tried to inflate pending bills by Sh1.1 billion to Sh2.5 billion but an internal audit revealed that only Sh1.4 billion were eligible saying those responsible should be held accountable.

Wambua revealed another scandal surrounding the procurement of a ballast crusher at Sh109 million. Although it was supposed to produce 120 tonnes per hour when it was acquired, it only generated Sh1.7 million in two years before it stalled. 

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