• Magistrate Teresia Murigi put Ahmed Omar, Daud Abdullahi, Jeff Mworia on the defence tarting July 28 after she ruled the prosecution had established a case against them.
• The court, however, acquitted Sayid Ibrahim, who was the Kenya Commercial Bank Wajir branch manager.
Image: FILE
Three Wajir county officials have a case to answer in relation to a Sh26 million graft case, the court has ruled.
Magistrate Teresia Murigi put Ahmed Omar, Daud Abdullahi, Jeff Mworia on the defence starting July 28 after she ruled the prosecution had established a case against them.
The court, however, acquitted Sayid Ibrahim, who was the Kenya Commercial Bank Wajir branch manager.
He got into trouble for allegedly clearing cheques that did not bear the required signatures. He was also accused of withdrawing the said amount from the bank on October 9, 2018.
Murigi said evidence presented did not establish a case against Ibrahim, neither did it prove he benefited from the transaction of the overdraft.
“For the charge to stand, it must be shown that Sayid had intention to embezzle funds being withdrawn. I find that he did not act irregularly as he was just under instructions,” the magistrate ruled.
The suspects were arraigned in November 2018 and charged with conspiring to defraud the county government of Sh26 million.
Wajir Governor Mohamed Mohamud appeared in the case as a witness.
He told the court that he did not issue any instructions for the withdrawal of Sh25 million and neither was he aware of a request by the Finance executive for an overdraft facility of the amount at KCB, Wajir.
The request was in form of a letter and the overdraft was reportedly for payment of county employees and office expenses.
“This letter has never been brought to my attention. Its contents were also never discussed in any of the CEC meetings in the last financial year,” he said.
Abdullahi is facing a separate count of abuse of office and failure to manage public property.
He is accused of committing the offence between October 5 and October 9, 2018 by unlawfully authorising Mworia as a sole signatory of the County Government of Wajir imprest account.
Omar also faces a separate charge of abuse of office in which he is alleged to have used his position to confer a benefit to Mworia by purporting that the County Executive Committee had appointed him the signatory of the imprest account.
Mworia faces four other counts, including fraudulent acquisition of public property.
Edited by EKibii