NYS suspect Josephine Kabura told the PAC on Tuesday that she owns 20 companies but had only registered five of them by the time she started working with the NYS.
Kabura appeared before
the Public Accounts Committee amid investigations into the Sh791 National Youth Service scandal.
"I
registered the rest while at the NYS for tendering," she said. "I registered so many companies to increase my chances of getting business from the government and
many other companies out there."
But she added that she did not get the contracts she was awarded by the NYS through tenders, but through LPOs.
Kabura said she was the sole proprietor of all the 20 organisations and did all
their management work.
"Most of the companies were registered and I did the work alone.
I was able to manage all of them." she said.
The businesswoman listed some of the companies as
Form Homes Builders, Reinforced Concrete Technologies, Roof and All Trading and
Smart Board.
The companies associated with Kabura are said to have received the money from the NYS.
Kabura and her co-accused, businessman Ben Gethi, allegedly transacted the money through an account operated by
.
A special audit revealed in June that Kenyans lost more than Sh1.8 billion in the NYS scam.
Kabura was allegedly the biggest beneficiary; a report by Auditor General Edward Ouko unearthed how she received Sh1.299 billion on account of 11 businesses.
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Asked how she learned of the National Youth Service, the businesswoman said she had knowledge of the Devolution ministry.
"I learnt of that through a general contact at the procurement department.
Normally when you are in business you have to be extravagant in looking for (deals). I gave my papers to different companies," she said.
"... when I was contacted to supply of materials.. it was a general call (through the) procurement department... no particular person."
She said that to the NYS she supplied
road construction materials and equipment including vectors used in engineering.
Kabura said in an affidavit in February that former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru helped her win contracts at the NYS.
She repeated this today saying: "I know Waiguru.
I met her in April 2012 and she introduced me to NYS and that is how I got my jobs."
But she contradicted herself saying they had
had no links or relationship whatsoever.
The businesswoman had said in February that she and Waiguru were friends.
Waiguru dismissed her as a “crazy woman” whom she had never met and came to know about only after the scandal broke.
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Kabura also told the committee that she is a trained IT expert with a diploma and higher diplomas from the Kenya College of Accountancy. She said she acquired them between 2001 and 2004.
She said she worked with home systems, a subsidiary of Kenya Data network and at the same time was doing business for supply and delivery of IT related product.