Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen's fate in a multi-billion scandal that rocked the country has now been determined.
According to a report by People Daily on Thursday, April 9, the High Court made a ruling in a petition that linked the senator to the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal in 2017.
A parliamentary committee had filed a petition against Murkomen, claiming that his company, Sing’oei Murkomen and Sigei Associates, had withheld statements in relation to the scandal in which the auditor general questioned the expenditure of Ksh12 billion.
Justice Weldon Korir absolved the legislator, stating that the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) recommendation that DPP Noordin Haji prefers charges against him violated the right of fair administrative action.
Murkomen was accused alongside his business partner Hillary Sigei for aiding and abetting money laundering.
The committee claimed that the firm had withdrawn Ksh500 million from the client account but refused to make the information public.
The judge deconstructed PAC's mandate as the committee was demanding that Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti carries out investigations, yet it is the DPP who should direct police to carry out investigations.
Sigei, on the other hand, defended the company claiming that PAC's allegations were not supported by evidence.
In 2016, the taxpayers lost money to the tune of Ksh1.9 billion with suspect Josephine Kabura allegedly receiving Ksh1.3 billion through her 11 accounts.
“The special audit noted fraudulent practices that led to the losses of Ksh1,863,512,256 in various circumstances as is in Case 1 (Ksh791,385,000), Case 2 (Ksh609,252,760), Case 3 (Ksh240,751,576) and Case 4 (Ksh222,122,919)," the auditor general noted at the time.
In 2018, after the second wave of the scandal was felt, the auditor general suspected that close to Ksh12 billion could have been lost through the NYS scandal.
At the time, the country risked losing Ksh2 billion through the ministry of Agriculture in the construction of water pumps and dams.
