Kiambu County officials stash Sh20m in secret accounts
What you need to know:
- Close to Sh20 million stashed in 60 mobile bank accounts managed by ward administrators during the previous regime.
The accounts, which are reported to have been opened in February and March last year, were each credited with Sh500,000.
In total, Sh30 million, which was part of the county’s Sh300 million Biashara Fund, was credited to 60 accounts which were mobile.
Kiambu County government has discovered close to Sh20 million stashed in 60 mobile bank accounts managed by ward administrators during the previous regime.
Consequently, the county's Youth Affairs Chief Officer Penina Kamau is seeking to have Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) freeze the said accounts to pave way for investigations.
The county wants the bank to stop any transactions until further notice and to provide them with information on the signatories, the dates the accounts were opened and how they have been operating.
DETAILED REPORT
The accounts, which are reported to have been opened in February and March last year, were each credited with Sh500,000.
In total, Sh30 million, which was part of the county’s Sh300 million Biashara Fund, was credited to 60 accounts which were mobile.
Kiambu has 60 wards and the accounts were being operated using a code of a loan account. The money was to be given to women and youth as loans to help them start businesses.
BALANCE
A report to the County Youth Executive Committee member Karungo Thang’wa on Wednesday revealed that only Sh10 million had been disbursed.
But the balance, which according to Mr Thang’wa was still accessible to ward administrators as at Wednesday, was never disclosed to the Governor Ferdinand Waititu administration which took over in September last year.
Mr Waititu has now ordered all the ward administrators to submit a detailed report on how they disbursed the money.
DISBURSED
According to Mr Mwangi’s status report, some ward administrators had disbursed more than Sh400,000 from their respective accounts, while others had disbursed only Sh10,000.
Notable wards which still had most of the unused fund include, Kihara which has a balance of Sh489, 901, Ndarugu (Sh481, 437), Githobokoni (Sh466, 734), Ngenda (459, 469), Githunguri (Sh454, 887), Gatuanyaga (Sh454, 969), Cianda (Sh450, 549), Muchatha (Sh435, 837), and Hospital (Sh404, 342).
Those which has the most used cash include Kiambu Township Ward which has a balance of Sh70, 067, Kiambu Township (Sh78, 949), Ndenderu (Sh105, 560) and Bibirioni (Sh151, 108).
