The Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, on Monday dropped fraud charges against eleven suspects in Ksh60 million National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.
The suspects included; NYS Deputy Director General Sammy Michuki, Rodgers Nzioka, Simon Kanyi, Steven Riungu, Josephat Njoroge, Lucas Otieno, Timothy Kiplagat, Charles Makau, Jackson Matego Juma, Humphrey Odhiambo, Bernard Masika.
The DPP, however, told the court that should there be new evidence against the discharged persons, they would be rearrested, according to Section 87 A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
The case was being heard before Milimani Court Principal Magistrate, Peter Ooko, where charges were read afresh to the remaining suspects, former NYS Director General Richard Ndubai, former Youth and Gender Principal Secretary (PS) Lilian Omollo, three companies and 28 others.
According to the DCI detectives and the DPP, there was an existing elaborate scheme which involved all level of staff.
Fictitious invoices would be presented to the NYS with the help of junior staff, and payments quickly approved by PS Omollo and other senior managers.
According to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), the former PS stashed KSh32.9 million in ten bank accounts registered in the names of three companies and her three children.
Fredrick Musyoki, a police sergeant attached to the ARA, stated that investigations showed that the funds in Omollo’s accounts were from the NYS scam and needed to be surrendered to the government to help recover taxpayers’ money.
ARA further noted that most of the money was deposited in batches of Ksh900,000, and in some instances, into three different accounts on the same day to beat Central Bank of Kenya regulations, that require financial institutions to report any transactions above Ksh1 million.
Besides, Section 44 of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (POCAMLA) requires financial institutions to report to the authorities any suspicious activities such as sudden unexplained money transfers.
