The Senate Health Committee has told Health PS Nicholas Muraguri to resign over the unaccounted for Sh5 billion.
It has been reported the amount was stolen by the ministry’s officials through manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System and double payments.
The file of Estama Investment Ltd, said to have received Sh200 million, has gone missing at the Registrar of Companies in Sheria House.
Muraguri and Health CS Cleopa Mailu snubbed a meeting with the committee, in which they were to shed light on the alleged mega scandal said to be five times that of the Sh791 million NYS theft.
Yesterday the CS and the PS said they will appear next Tuesday, because the invitation came late on Wednesday.
The committee chaired by Migori Senator Wilfred Machage asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation to investigate the alleged theft. “We will not sit down and watch as people swindle public funds. Something must be done. Seize property owned by the accused to recover public funds,” the senator said.
Machage said the audit could take up to three years and that the funds unaccounted for could have been spent by then. “It is unfortunate that what we are doing is a postmortem but this theft has to be caught by the neck,” he said.
Wajir Senator Abdullaman Ali said the scandal is weighty and requires swift intervention to save public funds. “When the Tharaka Nithi Deputy Governor [Eliud Mureithi] had Sh3.5 million snatched by a bodyguard, we saw police swing into action and recover some money,” he said. “We want the same on Muraguri and his accomplices. Kenyans must be told the truth.”