Forty four people among them public servants were on Thursday charged in a Kenyan court over the theft of $80 million from the country’s National Youth Service, a youth agency set up to fight high unemployment among young people in the East African nation.
The accused persons are charged with alleged fraudulent payment of money for goods and services that were not delivered to the agency.
Among those charged was the Director General of the National Youth Service (NYS) Richard Ndubai and the permanent secretary in charge of the ministry of Youth Affairs Lilian Mbogo-Omollo.
They were charged together with other officials from the agency as well business persons allegedly involved in the corrupt dealings.
The National Youth is a paramilitary training institution that was formed to help young people acquire skills that would enable them be self-employed. To this end it is allocated up to $250 Million every financial year.
The suspects pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to commit economic crimes, abuse of office, failing to comply with regulation on public finance management as well as fraudulently acquiring public property.
In one instance a supplier was paid $5.9 million, yet she did not supply anything to the agency. More people are expected to appear in court in the coming days.
