Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

City accountant to serve one year for embezzling free education cash


An accountant at the Ministry of Education has been fined Sh864,000 failure to which he will serve one year in jail.

Mr Samuel Odigo Michira was found guilty of two counts and was ordered to pay a fine of Sh300,000 or serve six months jail and a further Sh564,000 or serve an additional jail term of six months.

Mr Michira, an accountant based in Nairobi, was found guilty of deceiving the accounting officer in the Ministry by giving false attendance registers, payment schedules and fuel receipts for participants who had attended a workshop organised by the Ministry of Education eight years ago.

It is alleged that he misappropriated Sh364,447 in paying ‘ghost’ participants part of Sh763,000 he was given to facilitate a Steering Group Writing Workshop.

The training was held at the Agricultural Resource Centre Hotel in Egerton University, in September 2009 and was attended by 30 participants.

The training was meant for capacity building for teachers and quality assurance officers and was being facilitated by Ministry of Education and development partners.

The programme, under the In-Service Education and training (INSET), was among initiatives to support the free primary education. The prosecution called a total of 19 witnesses to support the case.

Senior principal magistrate Felix Kombo said the prosecution had proved that Mr Michira filed fake imprests and received money.