Education ministry clerk who registered fake school to refund Sh11 million

EACC says official diverted free education money using the name of a nonexistence school. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The anti-corruption agency has begun proceedings to recover more than Sh11 million allegedly stolen by a clerk at the Ministry of Education.

Through a suit filed at the High Court, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) claims that Joshua Momanyi Ocharo stole the money by registering a non-existent public secondary school and diverted the money to his personal account.

“He embezzled the funds by fraudulently adding the name of ‘Mundeku Secondary School’ in the final schedule of payment and inserting his personal bank account against the purported school for purposes of processing of payments under the Free Day Secondary Schools Education,” says the agency.

According to the commission, Ocharo, a clerical officer in the Department of Secondary School Education, used the money to buy a vehicle and two parcels of land on which he build a house.

The commission’s lawyer Brigid Maina says they have been tracing Ocharo since 2018 when they received information that public funds from the ministry had been misappropriated by certain individuals.

EACC claims that Ocharo, who was tasked with preparing schedule for the distribution of the free day secondary schools funds, inserted the name of Mundeku Secondary School in the final list of schools which were to benefit from the government disbursement.

“He was charged with data entry from data capture forms submitted by Sub-County Directors of Education. Between August 2017 and September 2018, he prepared schedules of all schools that were to benefit with Free Day Secondary Education funds and the same contained irregularities,” says the watchdog.

The school was purported to be in Kakamega County, but the bank account was Ocharo's.

The commission says he bought a plot in Komarock and another in Movoko township, and a car worth Sh2.3 million.

“He knowingly deceived his supervisors into forwarding a falsified final schedule by making them believe the payment was as per the data forms submitted by the sub county education officers from all over the country resulting to public funds being paid into his personal account,” argues the agency.

The commission wants Ocharo ordered to refund the Sh11,131,305 or forfeit the assets he bought using the money and pay the deficit.

[email protected]