By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Most of the Sh180 million stolen from the Youth
Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) was used to purchase luxury homes,
pay debts and line the pockets of powerful individuals, law firms and
companies.
Parliament’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) made the
revelations in a report tabled in the House after last month’s probe
into the multi-million shilling scandal that has dominated public
discourse since last year.
The report, which is a study into the inner
workings of corruption networks in Kenya, shows how public funds were
illegally moved through commercial banks into individual pockets and
ultimately used to buy personal assets.
Businessman Mukuria Ngamau, for instance, used his
company Quorandum Limited’s Chase Bank account to receive money from the
youth fund and make several transactions with third parties, including
the purchase of a duplex apartment in Nairobi’s Lavington estate.
The property was bought from Duchess Park Limited at a cost of Sh48.5 million.
PIC found that Mr Ngamau transferred Sh59,082,835
that was part of the proceeds of fraudulent youth fund transactions to
Quorandum’s account at Chase Bank from where the funds were moved to
Quorandum’s account at Standard Chartered Bank, Yaya Centre Branch.
The funds were then used “to make further
transactions and payments on various dates to third parties, including a
payment of Sh3.3 million to Bruce Dominic Odhiambo’s account at Co-operative Bank, purportedly for payments of supplies and consultancy services,” the report which was tabled in Parliament says.
PIC has recommended the prosecutions of more than
10 people it identified for conspiring to defraud the youth fund of its
resources. Top on the list is former YEDF chairman Bruce Odhiambo,
suspended chief executive Catherine Namuye and Mr Ngamau.
PIC says Quorandum Limited separately received
Sh115 million and Sh65 million from the youth fund as payments for
purported consultancy services to develop an Information, Communication
and Technology (ICT) Strategic Plan and Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) System.
The money was then used to make payments to third
parties, including settlement of a Sh18 million debt owed to Great Lakes
Limited.
The payment was made through Nairobi law firm Ngigi
Mbugua & Company Advocates, revealing the involvement of
professionals in facilitating the illicit transactions.
Mr Ngamau also paid Sh9.24 million to Britcom
International, a UK-based company, for the purchase of an
excavator/grader, but the report does not say whether the machine was
delivered.
Doreen Waithera Ng’ang’a, a co-director at
Quorandum Limited and also Mr Ngamau’s wife, benefited from the stolen
funds, having received Sh91,480 as a repayment of a loan she had
extended to her husband.
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