By The Weekly Vision
Mr Amason Kingi, the former governor of Kilifi is facing corruption scandals in which he allegedly paid millions of shillings to police officers to execute a court order. The administration of the current Governor Gideon Mung’aro is said to have unearthed several scandals that were allegedly planned and executed by his predecessor, but this particular one stands out. Mr Kingi is now serving as Senate Speaker.
Governor Mung’aro has been complaining that the previous regime was involved in some malpractices where taxpayers’ money was either looted or misused and only benefited a few individuals in the executive and procurement departments. Mr Mung’aro has in the past complained of having inherited a bloated workforce, alleging that a comparison of the payrolls for July 2021 and June 2022 revealed that 321 new employees were introduced into the payroll. Between 2021 and 2022 another list indicates that the county had hired an additional 271 new staff which indicates that there is a variance of 50 staff between the two records.
Further analysis of the new staff details revealed that the County hired 2 members of staff in positions requiring certificates of secondary education, yet they had none, while 17 staff had only secondary education certificates but were hired for positions in job groups J and above, which required higher levels of education. Further, one new staff member with an undergraduate degree was placed in a grade lower than the degree entry-level. It has also been discovered that the 18 County departments hired 926 casual workers against the directive of the County Public Service Board Circular Ref. No. CG/KLF/CPSB/C&CE/24/VOL.3/11 dated 15th October 2019.
It has also been discovered that the administration of Mr Kingi paid money directly to police officers who had been engaged in executing a Court order, they were paid Ksh. 3,914,000 contrary to Section 104(3) of the National Police Service Act, 2011 which provides that monies paid for the private use of the police as specified in the Act shall be paid to The National Treasury.
It is not known why the governor chose to pay individual police officers for executing a court order, details and a list of police officers are not available. Queries are also being raised about the money spent on legal services. Records indicate that the governor approved the payment of Ksh.47, 173,909 for the hire of a private legal consultant. The engagement of a legal consultant was contrary to Section 16 of the Office of the County Attorney Act, 2020.
