The High Court has frozen the bank account of a public officer at the Ministry of Environment who is alleged to have fraudulently acquired public funds amounting to millions of shillings. According to preliminary investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Samuel Njoroge Kariuki's currently has Ksh.22 million, an amount that does not match his salary and therefore the funds in the account are believed to have been obtained through corruption. Documents filed in court indicate that Kariuki joined the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in January 2018, as a Finance Officer II in job group K earning a salary of Ksh.32,000. Before joining the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, was working at Save the Children and earning a net salary of Ksh.27,000. “That apart from his salary, the respondents received numerous large sums of money from his employer the Ministry of Environment and Forestry amounting to Ksh.79,763,944," reads court papers. EACC says that as of the date of execution of warrants, the respondent's bank account had a balance of Ksh.22, 467,999 which had not been utilized. Between March 2019 and March 2022, he received an imprest of Ksh.3.9 million for the purchase of snacks. “Investigations established that 2nd February and 5th February 2021 public funds designated as purchase of snacks were irregularly acquired and spent," reads the court documents. "The Commission's findings have raised reasonable suspicion that considering the respondent's salary, the credits into his bank account are disproportionate to his known legitimate known sources of income, and could have been obtained through corrupt conduct."
