DPP Noordin Haji to charge education ministry clerk Joshua Momanyi Ocharo who ran ghost school

The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) is looking to charge a Ministry of Education clerk who created a ghost secondary school and allocated it Sh11 million.

In a report published in the Kenya gazette on Friday May 27 the anti-graft body asked the Director of Public Prosecutions Nordin Haji to charge the suspect Joshua Momanyi.

According to EACC, Momanyi should be charged with abuse of office, deceiving the principal and fraudulent acquisition of public property.

“It was revealed the said employee misled his employer by submitting a funds distribution schedule with misleading information about the school as a recipient, thereby causing financial loss to the Ministry of Education,” EACC said in its report.

A probe into the matter revealed that between August 2017 and September 2018, Momanyi who was responsible for preparing the funds distribution schedule for all schools getting free secondary day education cash created an entry called Mundeku Secondary School which had 1,188 students.

EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak during a past event EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak during a past event Pulse Live Kenya

The clerk then went ahead to create bank accounts and allocate funds for the school, which he used to acquire land and a motor vehicle with.

EACC has since recovered Sh1.9 million and is looking to recover another Sh9.2 million from the clerk.

Momanyi’s dealings were blown after a publisher contracted by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) failed to locate the school which Momanyi had said was in Khwisero, Kakamega county.

Failure by the ministry to fully migrate to Nemis was blamed for the theft of billions of taxpayers’ money pocketed by corrupt officials and school heads, according to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.