Treasury Officials Face Court Over Massive Fund Misuse
Nine individuals, including three senior National Treasury officers and six company directors, have been brought before the courts to answer charges linked to the alleged diversion of public money.
Prosecutors from the Director of Public Prosecutions have preferred a total of one hundred and twenty-one counts against them, claiming they channelled roughly one point five seven billion shillings away from an official development programme known as PROFIT. The case centres on accusations of abuse of office, unlawful acquisition of public assets, financial misconduct, production of false documents, and money-laundering activities.
The accused National Treasury officials named in the charge sheet are Programme Coordinator John Ngure Kabutha, Head of Accounting Unit Namwel Moturi Motanya, and Senior Accountant John Maina Muriithi. Alongside them stand business proprietors Gladys Juliet Oroni, Brian Kiprop Chepkarat, Ian Kwemoi Chepkarat, Josephat Kamau Kamoshe, James Omwodo Ndai and Jimmy Carter Odoyo Osodo. Investigators maintain that Kabutha, working with Project Accountant Billy Otieno Obango, authorised a series of large payments to private firms that later proved irregular.
Specific transactions highlighted by the prosecution include seventy-three point eight million shillings paid to Mawindo Enterprises, forty-one point one million shillings directed to Brigs Agencies, and seventy-one point four million shillings sent to Greenbasil Agencies. These disbursements, prosecutors argue, formed part of a wider pattern of fraudulent releases under the rural financial innovation programme and ultimately left the scheme short by one point five six nine billion shillings.
Further counts allege that some of the business directors actively laundered the proceeds. One sequence of charges states that Gladys Juliet Oroni moved thirteen million shillings through an advocates’ client account to buy several parcels of land, while another transfer of fourteen point zero five million shillings is said to have followed a similar route for additional property purchases. The prosecution presents these movements as attempts to conceal the origin of the funds.
All nine suspects have entered pleas of not guilty. The matter remains before the court as the state prepares to present its evidence, with the accused continuing to contest every allegation of wrongdoing connected to the programme’s finances.
