EACC: Arrested Vihiga chief officer demanded Sh200K bribe to approve Sh1.8m payments

Vihiga Education chief officer Noel Malanda was arrested and detained in connection with a corruption investigations against her and other senior officials, the ethics watchdog has said.

An EACC statement said it is running a corruption investigation in the Vihiga county Executive.

The statement further said Malanda, who also oversees science and technology, has been under investigation for allegations of extortion, kickbacks and other forms of corrupt conduct in the management of contracts within her department.

“She is one of the Vihiga top officials accused of running fraudulent schemes within their dockets. As Chief Officer, she engages contractors and allegedly demands hefty kickbacks before the contract is awarded and further before any payments are made for the completed works,” the statement said. 

Malanda was arrested for demanding Sh200,000 from a trader who had supplied ECDE Certificates to the Vihiga Government as a condition for approving his payment for completed works amounting to Sh1.8 million.

Initially, EACC Spokesperson Eric Ngumbi, while confirming the arrest, said the chief officer was arrested with Sh400,000, which her office was not able to explain.

“We believed that it is part of the money that was being extorted from contractors and recovered from a drawer in her office because she wasn’t able to explain the source of the money and what it was meant for,” Ngumbi said in his statement.

The spokesman said in his statement the Chief Officer is alleged to have been verbally instructing contractors to commence works and deliver services without signed contracts, even in cases where the contractors were procured procedurally.

The statement said upon completion of the works and supply of the services, Malanda would demand bribes to issue contracts, which would form part of the payment documents. Failure to part with the bribes would see the payment delayed indefinitely.

“Many traders have allegedly been frustrated by the said Chief Officer and forced to pay the kickbacks,” Ngumbi said.

He said more legal actions are expected in the Vihiga Government, where massive corruption has been reported in both the Assembly and Executive. 

Meanwhile, the Assembly is also under investigation relating to the embezzlement of public funds involving Sh200 million for mortgage and car loan funds by senior officials of the assembly.

EACC is also investigating imprest fraud of more than Sh100 million for ‘ghost’ trips and activities for which county assembly officials paid themselves for travels never undertaken.

The ethics watchdog is also investigating conflict-of-interest cases in which senior assembly officials are the leading suppliers of goods and services to the assembly. It is probing irregular payments for goods and services not delivered.

In September 2023, the Senate Public Accounts Committee declared Vihiga county Assembly a crime scene, following reported cases of financial malpractices.

This came after the Senate Committee interrogated Assembly officials in about issues raised by the Auditor General in the report on the county government. The Senate referred the alleged financial violations for investigation by the EACC