CS Sicily Kariuki, Margaret Kobia to Meet Public Accounts Committee Over NYS Scandal

Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki was on Tuesday set to appear before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer questions on the theft of Ksh9 Billion from the National Youth Service (NYS).

The CS served at the Gender and Youth Affairs at the time when the funds are said to have disappeared from the youth empowerment programme.

Along with the current Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs CS Margaret Kobia, they will be probed by the Opiyo Wandayi-led committee in what the Chair termed as a routine meeting.

"We are expecting to have a routine meeting with them considering that we had invited them before but they were not able to appear because of their ministerial duties," Mr Wandayi stated.

[caption caption="Health CS Sicily Kariuki"][/caption]

The CSs, however, did not show up for the meeting. Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro noted that the CS had been involved in various scandals but would soon face the law.

"CS Health has been a person of interest- she was in office when NYS scam came up, was previously mentioned in the fertiliser scam when she was PS Agriculture.

"She may run away from this committee, but she will never run away from the other instruments of government," he noted.

Public Service Principal Secretary Lillian Mbogo Omollo was taken into custody and charged in connection to the loss of Ksh468 Million based on evidence that had been gathered by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives.

When she appeared before the committee, Ms Mbogo asserted that the amount quoted in the media could not have been lost at NYS in 2016.

The PS argued that the Auditor General could have noted the impropriety at the time and since it was never raised then there was no loss.

[caption caption="Public Service, Youth & Gender CAS Rachel Shebesh (L), CS Sicily Kariuki, CS Margaret Kobia and PS Lillian Omollo during handing over ceremony "][/caption]

Ms Mbogo further told the Members of Parliament (MPs) that the suppliers who were paid large sums of money while no goods or services were rendered were paid off as debts owed by the previous regimes.

According to the PAC Chair, the committee would only be seeking to find out from the CSs what might have happened to cause the crippling losses at NYS.

NYS Director-General Richard Ndubai is among those facing charges over the loss of Ksh468 Million NYS funds.

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