Senior Principal Magistrate, Felix Kombo, held that former Ministry of Education official, James Odhiambo, was guilty of forgery allegations.
The ex-govt official was ordered to pay Ksh4.5 million shillings as a fine for the offence or serve one year in jail.
Magistrate Kombo disclosed that the evidence present in court during the hearings had verified beyond reasonable doubts that the accused was indeed guilty of doctoring documents.
“I find it proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the receipts, the subject of count one, were forged documents and therefore false,” he divulged.
Mr Odhiambo had been charged with falsifying receipts and presenting them to the ministry in the pretext that he had spent Ksh2,263,440 during refurbishing of the Provincial Technical Training Eastern Province Office, Embu.
During the period in which he was accused of forgery, Odhiambo was head of School Equipment and Maintenance Unit (SEMU) at the Education ministry.
“The accused gave them to his principal – the Ministry in purported account for the incurrence of Ksh2,263,440 which he received through impress warrant number C806410,” the magistrate noted.
After deliberations, the court affirmed that the receipts used to claim reimbursement by the accused were actually forgeries as they were never issued by the parties indicated.
“They were written by the accused himself and only he would know their real source,” ruled magistrate Kombo.
In a similar forgery related case, Sirisia MP, John Waluke, and his business associate Grace Sarapy Wakhungu were accused of forging documents showing they stored maize in a South African warehouse in order to justify a Ksh500 million claim from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in a 2004 scandal.
A ruling in Mr Waluke’s case is yet to be made with the hearing set for March 11, 2019.
