Speed up Investigations and Name 11 Officials Implicated in Theft of KES 400 Million, Oduol to EACC

Siaya Deputy Governor Dr William Oduol Denge now wants the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) to speed up investigations and name eleven senior officials implicated in the theft of KES 400 million.

On Friday the Commission named a Mr. Hezron Opiyo said to be an Accountant in the Finance Department for having misappropriated KES 18,980,830 which was traced to have passed through his bank account.

“As early as March this year I made noise about the theft of substantial amounts of money by senior officials of the county government,” Dr. Oduol told the press on Sunday, adding “At that time people thought I was mad. I presented incontrovertible evidence complete with names to EACC. Let them now move swiftly and prosecute those involved. We are watching!”.

Dr. Oduol was subjected to a humiliating impeachment process by the Siaya County Assembly in May for exposing evidence of graft in the Siaya County Government. He made public, for the first time, misuse of the imprest facility to withdraw amounts that far exceeded the legal limits. 

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Dr. Oduol pointed a finger squarely at senior officials in the Treasury, Finance and Economic Planning dockets.

Meanwhile, unverified reports on social media have indicated that catching wind of impending arrest of senior personnel in the Siaya County Government, Siaya Governor James Aggrey Bob Orengo arranged to be included in the trip made last week by President Ruto to India. The reports claim that Orengo implored the president to intervene and subvert efforts by the investigative authorities to get to the bottom of the KES 400 million stolen in Siaya.

The same sources claim that the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission on Saturday interviewed former Governor Cornell Rasanga Amoth with a view to establishing whether irregularities of such substantial amounts being withdrawn through imprests was commonplace in his admininistration.

The Orengo administration is being investigated for procurement fraud, falsification of documents, fraudulent recruitment, fraudulent pending bills, payroll fraud, embezzlement of public funds among others.