Samburu Governor Moses Lenolkulal Arrested over Theft of Sh2 Billion from County Coffers

Detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) have on Wednesday attested Samburu Governor Moses Lenolkulal.

The officers raided Lenolkulal's homes in Nairobi and Samburu in investigations linked to the siphoning of Sh2 billion from the Samburu county government coffers.

The detectives arrived at the politician's homes at around 5:30 am on Wednesday.

He has been arrested at his Karen home and has been driven to the EACC headquarters in Nairobi for questioning.

EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak says investigations show that Samburu county officials registered companies that were illegally awarded tenders worth more than Sh700 million.

“No works were done, financial investigations reveal that most of the money was withdrawn in cash and shared out among various county officials,” Mbarak says in a statement.

“In other cases, contractors were irregularly awarded contracts worth over Ksh1 billion for works partly or never done after which they paid to top county officials,” he adds.

He says the anti-graft agency is in possession of evidence showing how millions of shillings in bribes were paid to several county officials by companies that were irregularly awarded lucrative contracts.

EACC says it will be seeking freezing and forfeiture of the assets belonging to Governor Lenolkulal and other officials involved in the looting scheme in addition to charging them in court.

Lenolkulal now joins the growing list of serving and former Governors who are being investigated over the theft of public funds.

They include Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, Migori's Okoth Obado, Alfred Mutua of Machakos and former Governors Waithaka Mwangi (Nyandarua) and Evans Kidero (Nairobi).