• 20 county staffs have so far appeared in court charged with theft of materials.
• An ad hoc committee formed by Governor is yet to start work; MCAs want a parallel investigation by the assembly.
Image: Barry Salil
Detectives investigating the theft of pre-school construction materials in Nandi yesterday discovered a consignment of 1900 new galvanised iron sheets in a special school.
The DCI officers discovered the materials inside a wood workshop at the Kapsabet School for the Deaf.
The materials were hidden under timber grooving machines and had no documents showing where they were from.
The officers have been following a trail of theft that saw the disappearance of an unquantified number of high-quality iron sheets, cement, roofing nails and wire mesh.
A manager at the school, Willy Tisei told investigators that the materials were taken to the college under the orders of suspended education CEC Valentine Chumo.
“She called me and directed that I store the iron sheets because the county government had no storage facility. That is what I exactly did,” Tisei said.
However, detectives were puzzled that the items were stored there without any documentation from the suppliers.
Tisei said that no officer from the county had ever gone to check the materials and they only informed the acting CEC Jacob Tanui of their existence after top officers were suspended.
On May 7, Governor Stephen Sang suspended 16 officials from the county departments of education and infrastructure following massive theft of building materials and tyres.
The tyres were worth Sh3.2 million according to Sang while the quantity of construction materials stolen was undeclared.
A seven-member ad hoc committee appointed to establish the magnitude of graft and those responsible are yet to start work.
By Monday, the select committee under the chairmanship of the county legal officer Timon Lel was yet to receive their appointment letters to start their probe.
Nandi county assembly is also expected to order a parallel investigation after they rejected Sang’s committee.
MCAs Emmanuel Rono, Teresa Maiyo, Orsbon Komen and Gideon Koech told The Star that they wanted to ensure justice for those suspended and have those culpable pay the price.
“We are aware of maneuvers by some of the county representatives to scuttle the probe but the majority of us want to know where Sh114 million meant for ECD centres went,” Rono said.
Rono is the chairman of the assembly education committee who which originated the move in to impeach Chumo in April.
(Edited by O. Owino)