• Last year, the High Court froze about a dozen accounts linked to Omollo.
• In court documents, she said the state has failed to show any link between money leaving NYS and landing in her accounts.
Image: FILE
Former PS Lillian Omollo has claimed no money was lost at the National Youth Service.
Omollo in court documents says that the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) froze her bank accounts based on the fact that she was the Permanent Secretary at the NYS where more than Sh400 million allegedly was lost through dubious contracts and procurement irregularities.
She says the alleged procedures have not been described and there is no proof the funds are traced to her bank accounts.
No proof or chronological link is drawn between monies leaving NYS and any of the deposits in the subject accounts.Lillian Omollo, former Public Service and Youth CS
"It is not laid out what role I played or failed to play that would form the basis to probe my bank accounts," she says.
ARA, she says, failed to show or identify the persons who allegedly deposited money in her accounts or to show any causal link between the money in the accounts and the NYS.
“No proof or chronological link is drawn between monies leaving NYS and any of the deposits in the subject accounts. During the hearing I will demonstrate that suspicion alone is not evidence upon which the court can make any findings,” she The former PS says.
In subordinate courts, there are ongoing and active cases against specific entities, suppliers charged with having gained benefits from NYS. Omollo claims in none of the cases is she charged with receiving any benefit or having facilitated such benefit and that all funds at NYS are duly accounted for.
Omollo, former NYS director general Richard Ndubai, several companies and about 30 other persons are charged in connection with loss of NYS funds. All pleaded not guilty. Assorted charges included conspiracy to commit an economic crime, abuse of office and fraudulent acquisition of public property, among others.
“There is no document showing my connection to monies allegedly paid to any of the contractors. The single allegation against me is that I was the sitting PS. I assert that it is not an offence to serve as the PS, there must be other evidence beyond mere office-holding,” she says.
Last year, the High Court froze six accounts at Equity Bank registered in the names of Lillian Muthoni Mbogo, which had $67,331.9 (Sh6.7million); an account in the name of LIDI Estates Ltd, which had$28,981 (Sh2.8million); another account in the same bank and in the same name, which had Sh2,297,495 and another with $8,979.83 (Sh879,000).
Another account at Equity in Omollo’s name had Sh1.68 million, while another account registered as Sahara Consultants held at Diamond Trust Bank had Sh5.65 million and three accounts registered in her children’s names had more than Sh11 million. Documents filed in court state that the amounts were deposited between January 2016 and March 2018. Omollo was appointed PS for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs on December 18, 2015.
The Assets Recovery Agency says the monies were unlawfully acquired and had them frozen pending an application for them to be forfeited to the government. It alleged Omollo made suspicious deposits totalling to Sh35 million into 10 accounts belonging to her and relatives while serving as the Youth and Gender PS.
Omollo says nothing would have been easier than producing evidence of NYS financial records showing theft of Sh467 million from NYS and evidence of tracing or linking the said public funds to her bank accounts.
But Omollo argues the movement of amounts of money is a matter of paperwork and the court must call for proof that money existed at NYS and that it was lost, even before she and her co-accused are called to answer.
“The ARA must show three components. One, budgetary allocation for the years in question from the Exchequer; two, the designated usage of the money and [three] proof of the diversion of money under my watch and for my benefit."
Omollo says during the hearing of the case on December 4, she will emphasise that ARA failed to show that NYS had public monies which it then lost.
Omollo says nothing would have been easier than producing evidence of NYS financial records showing theft of Sh467 million from NYS and evidence of tracing or linking the said public funds to her bank accounts.
“The evidence is not before the court and no explanation is given why it is not before the court yet the financial statements are in the custody of ARA,” she says.
The case will be heard on Wednesday December 4.
(Edited by V. Graham)