Probe into the KSh 10.5 billion National Youth Service (NYS) scandal gathered momentum on Monday, when President Uhuru Kenyatta summoned to his office Devolution Cabinet Secretary (CS) Eugine Wamalwa.
Senior officials in the Ministry of Devolution and Planning under which the NYS, a youth empowerment programme, falls are to appear before the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to shed light on the fresh looting.
This was the second looting scandal since the infamous KSh 791 million NYS graft scandal in 2015 which also involved a number of high ranking state officials.
Reports on Tuesday, May 15, showed the new NYS scandal allegedly involved 36 ghost companies. Preliminary investigations by the the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and other agencies in 2017 revealed that millions of taxpayers cash was wired to the fictitious suppliers.
And just like in the 2015 heist, the new multi-billion theft was also done through manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), an automated system that is supposed to create efficiency in planning, budgeting, procurement, expenditure management and reporting in the national and county governments. Several millions of taxpayers hard-earned money was allegedly siphoned from the NYS coffers to personal accounts of individuals through manipulation of the IFMIS.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji, had earlier stated that the initial investigation at the NYS had netted several suspects including the big fish.