An official from the Ministry of Education is under investigation for allegedly creating a non-existent secondary school and pocketing more than Ksh.11 million from the government to run the institution.
The suspect, a clerk at the ministry’s Nairobi headquarters, is said to be located in Kakamega County and listed as a non-existent school to accommodate 1,188 students.
The official then added the ‘ghost’ organization to the list of secondary schools that had received funding from the government for the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) fund.
According to the report of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the officer opened a personal account in an equity bank which was deposited in Ksh.11,131,305.53 FDSE funds between August 22, 2017 and June 18, 2018.
“The official’s behavior was exposed when publishers contracted by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) were unable to locate the school on the ground while distributing textbooks,” the EACC said.
“The EACC has established that the officer is an employee of the Ministry of Education, who was employed in 2010 and was posted as a clerk in Khwisero Sub-County – Kakamega County.”
The suspect is said to have spent about Ksh.2.5 million of this amount to purchase the vehicle, which was later recaptured by the dealer at the request of the commission.
The EACC said it was then able to recover Ksh.1.9 million from the dealer, causing depreciation.
The suspect is also said to have bought two parcels of land for approximately Ksh.1.8 million, besides withdrawing the remaining amount of approximately Ksh.7 million in cash on various dates.
The commission said the probe into the corruption scheme was at an advanced stage, and other officials involved in similar acts had been warned that their days were numbered.
