Court freezes company accounts over Sh185 million theft in Turkana

Justice Esther Maina. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has unearthed a Sh185 million grand corruption at the County Government of Turkana involving a company and senior members of staff.

The EACC yesterday filed a suit at the High Court to have the funds allegedly siphoned by Amailo Investments Ltd and five county officials forfeited to the state for being proceeds of corruption.

“Our investigations established that the money was systematically siphoned from the county government between 2014 and 2021 when the officials paid the company for goods and services not rendered and got kickbacks in return,” said EACC through lawyer Meyner Ashitiva.

In order to preserve the funds pending determination of the suit, Justice Esther Maina issued an order freezing the company’s accounts at Equity Bank, Lodwar Branch pending determination of the suit.

Justice Maina directed that the company, its agents or any person acting on their behalf should not operate, withdraw or transfer any amount currently held in the accounts until the court determines whether they are proceeds of corruption to be forfeited to state.

The officials EACC listed as being part of cartels that colluded to steal public funds are Turkana County head of accounting Esther Lokai, Public Health Inspector Mathew Kipkemei, senior accountant Grace Murei and Director of Education Samuel Eregae.

Others are James Chegem, who is the county’s head of stores, and the company’s directors Elim Peter Epagan and his father Peter Endapal.

According to EACC, the company is owned by Epagan, who is married to the county’s Head of Accounting (Esther Lokal), who used her position to award the contracts and authorise payments even when the goods had not been supplied.

“In just one instance, the county paid Sh25 million to the company to supply 6,024 bags of corn soya but the goods were never delivered,” said Ashitiva.

The commission’s investigating officer Michael Kasilon, in his affidavit, swore that they received a report in August last year on the fraudulent payments made to the company for eight years and upon investigations discovered they had siphoned Sh185,638,899.

Kalison stated that the county officials colluded with the company and issued false inspection reports and acceptance certificates to prove that the company had made the supplies and justify the huge payments.

“We established that the accounting officer was directly involved in the fraud as a director of the company which is owned by her husband and father-in-law. She went ahead to approve the payments for self-benefit and shared the kickbacks with other officials,” said Kalison.