• Senior Fund director said youths were each paid Sh800 but entry forms indicated Sh2,400
• Witnesses said they did not know the accused and disowned their statements
Image: Reuben Githinji
Prosecution witnesses on Wednesday failed to identify a senior Youth Enterprises Development Fund officer facing Sh635,300 fraud charge.
The witnesses said they did not know Erick Oyale, the Fund’s senior research and policy officer, and disowned their statements.
Some of them told Embu Anti-Corruption chief magistrate Maxwell Gicheru that they had never met Oyale. Others denied ever recording statements read in court.
Defence lawyer Njeru Ithiga celebrated in the court for "having caught the witnesses red-handed" in their efforts to lie against his client.
Oyale, who was based in Nairobi, denied 12 counts of fraud involving the money meant to pay for the training of youth in Embu and Meru between December 2, 2011, and January 12, 2012.
He is out on Sh100,000 bond. The hearing has dragged for seven years ago.
Wilfred Marangu, who was a livestock officer, said he was invited to Nkubu Polytechnic in Meru on December 16, 2011, to facilitate a youth seminar and was paid Sh4,000 for lunch and transport. He had no complaint and did not know the suspect.
Pastor John Njue said he was paid Sh400 for lunch and transport for the two-day training at Ugweri on December 7, 2011. He did not recognise the suspect and did not record any statement.
Njue said the entry forms indicated that he was paid Sh500 for lunch and Sh1,000 for transport. He disowned the signature on the form. He also disowned a statement he is said to have recorded on January 10, 2013.
A senior Fund director, Michael Githinji, said he was paid after mobilising the youth in Manyatta on December 9 and 10, 2011. He said on the first day, 49 youths reported as opposed to the 50 indicated in the entry forms.
Githinji said the youth were each paid Sh800 but entry forms indicated Sh2,400 – Sh1,200 for lunch and Sh1,200 for transport.
He said Oyale and his driver issued the money to the youth for the two days against his statement which indicated that he (Githinji) paid them alongside two interns.
Ithiga accused Githinji of planning to lie in the court to fix his former colleague for reasons only known to him.
The hearing continues on Friday.
Edited by R.Wamochie