Former Garsen MP Danson Mungatana has been dragged into the alleged theft of Sh51 million from Kilifi county's accounts at the CBK.
The county led by Amason KIngi dismissed claims that more than Sh1.18 billion was lost, saying only Sh51 million was wired irregularly, leading to the suspension of 10 county officials.
Lucy Wanjugu, the third defendant in a civil suit filed by the county, claimed Mungatana was part of
the theft engineered through IFMIS.
The affidavit Wanjugu swore in Nairobi on January 12 was drawn and filed by law firm Agimba and Associates.
In the document seen by the Star, the woman claims the politician told her he was expecting some money and asked her to receive it on his behalf.
“He explained the request by emphasising the fact that his accounts were overdrawn and a credit of monies to them would swallow the same; he also stated that he needed the monies in cash form urgently, to offset liabilities that he had,” read part of the affidavit.
Wanjugu, a director at Zohali Services, who said she was acquainted with Mungatana, claimed he made the request when they met last July.
Zohali, through its account at Jamii Bora Bank in Nairobi, allegedly received Sh5.3 million from Kilifi county on October 4, 2016, without doing any business.
Wanjugu
claimed that on October 7 last year, a further Sh3.8 million was credited to the account.
She
said she did not know where the money would come from until she went to the bank to make a withdrawal for Mungatana and that
she withdrew the money over several days.
But the woman
attached printouts of WhatsApp screen shots of messages she allegedly exchanged with Mungatana, which showed
she was to get the money from different counties.
The woman also made an application to DPP Keriako Tobiko asking to be a state witness who would tell the whole truth.
Reached for comment by the Star, Mungatana said he would respond appropriately once fully aware of the all the facts in the matter.
At a press conference outside his office on Friday, Kingi expressed shock at the revelation that the scam may have been engineered by a leader.
Kingi said he was also surprised that government agencies
tasked with investigating the matter were yet to summon Mungatana.
"I am bitter because as a Governor I was summoned to the EACC on November 28
last year. While I was summoned to the EACC this information was with the EACC," he said.
"This director, according to her affidavit, was summoned by the EACC on November 23 and she made it clear on that day that so and so was behind this scam. But the state never chose to summon Mungatana the person who had been named by Lucy. The state deliberately chose to summon the Governor of Kilifi who absolutely had nothing to do with the loss."
Kingi was
questioned by EACC detectives for more than seven hours over the alleged misappropriation of millions of shillings.
He was grilled over the Sh51 million payments, the purchase of 11 acres for the Mtwapa bus park at Sh308 million and the “mysterious” payment of Sh34 million to two companies for unknown services.
Also read:
The Governor accused the government of applying double standards to the fight against corruption by shielding suspects allied to it.
He said Mungatana would have been summoned long time ago if he was in the opposition.
“When I made this scam
public the Jubilee government was all over accusing the former Prime Minister of shielding governors allied to Cord. We now know the engineer of the scam is a Jubilee operative who is always by the side of the DP,” added Kingi.
He addressed the press flanked by
Senator Stewart Madzayo and several MCAs.
Raila cited the
exclusive coverage of the 2014/15 report released, saying Jubilee counties were yet to be covered.
"It is not only in Cord counties unfortunately... the propaganda being spread right now is directed as cord...even Nakuru is supposed to be led by ODM... even Garissa.. it's not objective," he said.
"...and they are quiet when they know others like Kiambu, which is a Jubilee county, lost money. It is something that is spread across the board."
Read more: