Aston Lukoye
The story of Erick kipkurui Mutai who is a prison cleaner has surprised many .The prison cleaner is estimated to be worth 257 million Kenyan shillings and he earns a salary of 20,000 Ksh per month .
Netizens have kept on asking themselves questions without answers .How can a prison cleaner accumulate such wealth?
Yesterday, Mutai was ordered by Lady Justice Esther Maina to submit seven cars worth Sh32 million to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission for seizure.
The High Court judgement stated, “The freezing orders shall subsist for a period of six months to allow EACC complete investigations into the allegations of fraud and embezzlement of public funds, and to file a formal application for recovery of the public resources.”
Among other frozen assets of kipkurui were ,Sh17.5 million house in Nairobi, two Sh25 million plots of land in Nyaribari Chache, Kisii County, and another Sh17 million parcel of land in Kericho .
The anti-corruption office told the court that the cleaning supervisor, who was paid Sh20,800 per month, formed seven firms and used them to swindle taxpayers’ money under the guise of providing meals between 2012 and 2016.
It was further established that Mutai owned a series of companies ;
Facton Logistics Enterprise
Nerimas General Agencie
Trechis Services Limite
White Unicorn Logistic
Unique Supplier
Homex Logistics Enterprise
Hygienic Ventures
According to the commission’s counsel Diana Kenduiwa, Mutai cooperated with numerous top prisons officers to have his enterprises take Sh257 million without supplying anything.
“His companies were the conduits for embezzling the Sh257 million through fictitious contracts for supply of food and ration to the State Department of Correctional Services when the goods were never supplied,” the lawyer said.
“Mutai purported to have supplied food and ration to seven prison facilities in Nairobi, but further investigations established no such goods were ever supplied. We discovered that his companies were registered between 2016 and 2017 for the sole purpose of receiving the funds,” Dorothy Mnjala, a forensic investigator said .
She alleged the guy took the money out of the bank quickly and used his proxies to buy houses all around the country.
Besides the pieces of lands Mutai had bought he also had 7 cars worth ksh 32 Million.
Mutai’s source of income or rather the net salary doesn’t match his net worth .
According to the Kenyan government,any asset owned by a public official that is not proportional to his legitimate source of income is deemed to have been obtained through corruption .
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