Court has freezed over 8.7 million shillings belonging to a junior employee at the National Treasury suspected to have been stolen from the government in the guise of allowances and facilitation fees after it was found in her M-Pesa account.
The High Court also gave an order to freeze all properties belonging to Faith Kiptis pending the conclusion of investigations by the EACC, which believes she acquired the properties from the government through corruption.
EACC told the court that it was apprehensive that Kiptis might transfer or dispose off the properties in light of the ongoing investigations. The properties include an apartment in Syokimau and plots in Shanzu, Mombasa, and Kilifi.
Kiptis is among other 4 Treasury employees who received imprest, facilitation, and extraneous allowance from January 2020 to June 2022.
Kiptis allegedly received 79.5 million shillings for similar allowances during the same period. She has a balance of 8.7 million in her M-Pesa account and another seven million in different bank accounts.
The other 3 employees are Robert Theuri Murage, Esther Ngeru and Doris Simiyu, bringing the total amount of money under investigation to fifty-five million shillings.
According to EACC, Ms. Ngeru the internal auditor received fifty three million as imprests, facilitation, and extraneous allowance.
The EACC says she has been making withdrawals from her M-Pesa account in batches of Sh100,000 and Sh50,000 and cheque withdrawals leaving a balance of Sh8.5 million.
Ms. Simiyu, an accountant, allegedly received Sh20 million for imprest, facilitation, and extraneous allowance. She had a balance of Sh8.9 million by the time the freeze order was issued.
Mr. Murage had received Sh24.7 million and withdrew the money leaving a balance of eleven million.
The investigator said preliminary findings raised suspicion that considering their salaries, the credits into their bank accounts were disproportionate to the known sources of income. Hence the money could be the proceeds of corruption.
