KUSSCO sues top executive over Sh1.6 billion unaccounted funds

Julius Odera. (Courtesy)

Sacco's umbrella body has sued its housing unit chief executive officer, Julius Odera, seeking to compel him to pay Sh1.6 billion that allegedly cannot be accounted for.

In a case filed by lawyer Cecil Miller, Kenya Union of Savings And Credit Co-operatives Ltd (KUSSCO) alleged that Odera, who was heading its Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives Ltd Housing Cooperative (KHC), is solely to blame for the money lost in the unit.

Miller said that Odera was first employed as an assistant accountant in its Central Finance Fund department within KUSCCO Housing Fund (KHF). He was promoted to the position of KHF manager in 2013. In 2019, Odera was appointed as the KHC chief executive.

"The plaintiff avers that defendant engaged in contact with the jurisdiction that constitutes misconduct, fraud and financial impropriety, as provisioned under Clause 7.6 and 7.7 of the plaintiff's Human Resource Manual. The defendant's actions caused the plaintiff financial and reputational harm," alleged Miller.

He claimed that Odera had allegedly been found culpable of financial misconduct outlined in the Forensic Audit Report Extract issued in March 2025.

According to KUSSCO's lawyer, Odera was in charge of developing the organisation's homes project. It accuses him of paying vendors at least Sh1.2 billion without evidence of the procurement process.

At the same time, the union claimed that under his management, there was an underpayment and potential diversion of payments for the KUSCCO homes project related to the purchase of the homes in cash and the tenant purchase scheme.

As a result, the court heard that there was an alleged Sh7.7 million discrepancy between the bank statement records and the payments recorded as received by KHF.

"Based on a review of his M-Pesa statements, it was established that the defendant received Sh1.7 million, in particular, Sh1.3 million from a valuer, Sh250,000 from a legal services provider and Sh50,000 from another legal services provider. He processed an advance payment of Sh28 million in relation to the sale of a property without evidence of any signed contract," added Miller.

KUSSCO also alleged that he approved loans to debtors without adequate savings or collateral, totalling Sh 170.5 million.

In the case, the union further claimed that Odera allegedly mismanaged the rental income for the KUSCCO homes project, whereby there was an alleged difference of Sh13 million between the expected and the actual rent collected.

"The defendant owed the respondent a duty of care to manage its affairs diligently and prudently. His failure to uphold this duty resulted in financial mismanagement and significant losses. His actions constitute gross negligence," the lawyer argued.

Odera is yet to respond to the case. He has, however, hired Nyamolo and Company Advocates to represent him. The case will be mentioned on June 24.