Meet 30-Year-Old Ann Wanjiku Ngirita Who Pocketed Sh59 Million for Supplying Nothing to NYS

Details of how National Youth Service (NYS) lost about Sh9 billion in the latest grand scandal in as many years have continued to be unearthed by State detectives.

Shocking revelations of how suppliers pocketed  millions for supplying virtually nothing to youth agency have been unravelled.

One of the suspects at the heart of new Sh9 billion heist is 30-year-old, Ann Wambere Wanjiku Ngirita, who was paid millions for supplying nothing.

Daily Nation reports that Ngirita confessed to the detectives investigating the theft that she received a sizeable sum of cash from the loot, despite having not tendered to supply anything to NYS. In fact, she says she has no knowledge of what procurement entails and it has never interested her.

Interestingly, the young lady does not have any physical office and all she did was to walk to NYS College in Gilgil, Nakuru County. Here, she met a procurement officer and requested she be allowed to supply goods.

Documents showed she was supposed to deliver foodstuff, stationery, hammers, and firewood. Money was channelled to her account in the name of her firm- Annwaw Investment from the NYS for this 'supply'.

She used a Certificate of Registration of Business and a Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax compliance certificate to get the tender at NYS. She received Sh59 million for goods not supplied.

She faces charges relating to fraud and acquisition of public property contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.

While being questioned, Wanjiku said that the procurement officer issued her a Local Purchase Order for the delivery of canned beef, pineapples, beans, biscuits and hammers to the NYS. She went ahead to reveal that she has no knowledge of where the goods were sourced from, their cost and if they were supplied.

“I don’t know what I supplied but I was shown the vouchers at the DCI,” reads part of her statement.

“I’m not aware of the procurement process as I have never been involved in any,” adds the statement.

She is among 43 individuals who are being investigated by the DCI in connection to the looting. Ngiriti has three bank accounts; Annwaw Investment, Ann Wambere, and Ann Wambere Wanjiku.

“I mandated my mother, Lucy Wambui Ngirita, to operate the account for Ann Wambere Wanjiku Investments,” she said.

Her mother owns and runs two companies identified as Waluco and Ngiwaco Investments, which are among ten firm whose directors have been summoned by DCI for investigation. Ngiriti said her mother withdrew the Sh59 million through one of her accounts and she thought it was for paying a loan her mother had been serving.

After completing her high school in 2008, she opened a shop in 2010 and closed it the same year. She later moved to Germany to study and later worked for a company “she could not remember its name”. At the company, she earned €1,200 (Sh141, 600) a month for a period of four year. Later she registered Annwaw and Ann Wambere Wanjiku Investments on June 16th, 2015, the Nation reports.

A background check by the Nation revealed she hails from a humble family in Naivasha, where her mother is known as a respectable cereals trader. However, the business blossomed, opening several other outlets that transformed their lives.

“She was in the cereals trade and operated the mill before venturing into the supplies business. That changed the family’s fortunes,” a family friend told Daily Nation. “The whole family ventured into the business, opening several companies,” a businessman added.

The family had also won lucrative tenders with Naivasha Maximum Security Prison where they supplied cereals since 2004. A neighbor told Nation that the tender supply with NYS, however, catapulted the family to instant riches.