A new scandal has hit Vihiga County after details emerged that county officials used bursary funds to buy airtime and other privileges.
When tabling a report before the County Assembly, nominated MCA Stanley Khasiera told his fellow legislators that the misappropriation happened under the watch of Education CEC Felistus Okumu.
Khasiera revealed that on March 15, the department of administration and coordination wrote to the education sector asking for Ksh 3.6million to facilitate 25 ward administrators working on the fund.
[caption caption="Vihiga County Headquarters"]
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The cash was part of Ksh 200million bursary kitty.
Out of the total Ksh3.6 million, the administrators got Ksh 125,000 as airtime allowance.
They were also given an addition Sh325,000 for refreshments during planning meetings.
Ksh 725,000 was paid out to bursary committee members as allowances while another Sh500,000 was budgeted for public participation.
The nominated MCA declared that Okumu was unfit to hold office.
Khasiera mentioned that the immediate ex-Education chief officer Moses Andagalu declined to appear before the ad-hoc committee probing the matter.
He further noted that on April 25, bursary fund manager Mercyline Mmbone gave out another Ksh 1.1 million bursary money to the finance department to spend on the fifth devolution conference in Kakamega County.
This is the second time that misappropriation of public funds has hit Governor Wilber Ottichilo's administration.
A week ago, two CECs, Alfred Indeche (Finance) and Marita Agufana (Sports), were impeached for transferring Sh18.8 million into a private mobile account in the 2017/18 financial year.
[caption caption="Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo"]
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