The Ethics & Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) boss Twalib Mbarak, on Thursday, April 9, announced that it had recovered Ksh19 million from the former Director Valuation & Taxation at the National Land Commission (NLC), Salome Ludenyi Munubi.
"EACC has recovered Ksh19 from ex-government official Salome Ludenyi that was found at her house,
In a Judgement delivered on 8th April 2020 in ACEC Suit No. 16 of 2018 (OS) EACC v Salome Ludenyi Munubi & 2 Others, Justice Onyiego found that the Defendant failed to explain the source of the money that had been retrieved in her house during a search on 4th May 2017," reads the statement issued by the commission.
Munubi was part of the list of NLC top officials whose homes were raided simultaneously by EACC officers at 6 a.m. over suspected fraud.
Similar raids were also carried out in the officials' rural homes, where the families of Muhammad Swazuri, NLC vice-chairman Abigael Mbagaya, CEO Tom Chavangi, Valuation, and Taxation Director Salome Munubi, Director of Finance Francis Mugo, his deputy Bernard Cheruiyot, Manager Mary Ngundo among others, were left in shock.
According to official reports filed by the EACC, the wife of one of the officials collapsed and was taken to hospital during the surprise raid.
The children found in the affected homes were not spared either as they were barred from leaving the various premises for school by the estimated dozen officers conducting the sweep, armed with a court order from a Nairobi court.
They hit the jackpot in Munubi's house where the huge stash of cash was found, with the officers revealing that it was both in US dollars and the local currency.
Reports later revealed that the NLC official was being investigated over claims of corruption during the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) land compensation.
Their offices at Ardhi House were not spared either as the officers conducted a highly coordinated operation, where mobile phones and personal computers were also confiscated.
On April 17, 2019, Munubi was arrested alongside several other NLC top officials, and charged with conspiracy to commit economic crimes, money laundering among other charges according to a statement from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) office.
Swazuri and Munubi were later released on a cash bail of Ksh.3.5million.
Evidence gathered by the prosecution showed how fake compensation claims, double payments, overpayments, inflation of land values and payment of people whose land was never on the corridor were used to loot taxpayer’s money.
However, crucial data that was key in the investigations mysteriously disappeared after a break-in at the commissions’ offices.
Following the burglary, the NLC stated that what got lost was a central processing unit in one of the computers within the Directorate of Valuation and Taxation containing some operational data.
