Former Director General of the National Museums of Kenya Mzalendo Kibunjia and four others have denied charges of mismanaging Sh441 million of public funds.
Mzalendo, Stanvas Ongalo, Oliver Rabuor, Wycliffe Ongata and Oscar Mwaura appeared before Milimani Magistrate Victor Wakumile.
The monies according to the prosecution were public funds fraudulently paid as salaries and gratuities to persons purportedly employed by the National Museums of Kenya.
Stanvas is the Director of Human Resources and Administration, Oliver is the Payroll ICT officer and Wycliffe is a payroll accountant.
They have all been released on a cash bail of Sh5 million each or a bond of sh10 million, 1 surety of a similar amount.
They are to deposit travel documents with the court and refrain from attempting to contact witnesses lined up by the state.
Also charged are companies associated with the accused persons.
According to the charge sheet, Wycliffe was accused of acquiring Sh14.5 million from Mwaura and another person not in court.
The police alleged that he acquired these monies with the full knowledge that they form part of proceeds of crime acquired from the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and unlawfully paid as salaries to persons reportedly employed by the NMK.
On the other hand, Stanvas the acting Director General at the National Museums of Kenya was accused of failing to comply with regulations of the Public Finance Management by incurring a wasteful expenditure of Sh50million being salaries paid to persons purportedly employed by the National Museums of Kenya.
The charges against all the accused persons range from abuse of office, money laundering and financial misconduct.
The case will be mentioned on May 2 for pre-trial conference.
