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Investigators Invite Forty People For Questioning Over N35bn Theft 

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Forty People Summoned By Investigators Over N35bn Theft

Forty people have been called for questioning by a Kenyan investigators, the move is in respect to the massive theft of public funds at the country’s National Youth Service (NYS).

10 billion shillings (N35.8billion) had been stolen through fictitious invoices, and multiple payments on one supplier invoice, at the NYS, Domestic media reports said.

The reports have dismayed many Kenyans, particularly as it follows another scam at the agency, which is supposed to equip the young with key skills and help create jobs, back in 2015.

George Kinoti, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), told Reuters his organisation had summoned government officials and business people who had been paid by the agency for supplying various goods and services, calling the issue a “scam” and a “fraud”.

It is massive theft of public funds,” he said, without giving an exact figure for the lost funds.

“Our aim is to have anybody who is involved in theft of public funds to answer and if possible to return what they have stolen from the public.”

Richard Ndubai, the head of the NYS, and a top official at the ministry of public service, youth and gender services, Lillian Mbogo-Omollo, stepped aside from their jobs temporarily on Friday to give space to investigators, the presidency said.

Within three, four, five days, you will see us in court,” Kinoti said. Ndubai and Mbogo-Omollo were not immediately available for comment.

In spite of pledges when he was first elected in 2013 to crack down on corruption, critics say President Uhuru Kenyatta has been slow to pursue top officials, adding that only big-name convictions will break what they call a culture of impunity.

Kenyatta has blamed lethargy on the part of some government agencies tasked with fighting corruption for the slow progress.

There have not been any significant convictions of the people involved in the theft of funds at the NYS in 2015 in spite of several prosecutions taking place in court.