Former Operations Manager at the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) in Lokichogio, Turkana County was Tuesday, August 30 sentenced to 12 years in prison or pay a fine of Ksh8.2 million by Kakuma Law Courts.
Shadrack Kipchelele was accused of stealing, fraudulent accounting, and false accounting by servant that resulted in the loss of Ksh22.7 million in 2020.
Kipchelele was convicted and sentenced on three accounts expected to run concurrently.
"He was convicted and sentenced on all three counts as follows; fined Ksh8 million in default six years imprisonment, Ksh100,000 in default two years imprisonment, and Ksh100,000 in default two years imprisonment," the court document read in part.
In April 2020, detectives from the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) launched investigations after preliminary investigations indicated that the bank lost close to Ksh22.7 million between October 2017 and March 2020.
KCB investigates the suspect
According to the then County Criminal Investigations Officer for Turkana James Leila, Kipchelele was exposed after the top KCB investigator who was based in Nairobi reported the matter.
The anomaly of the bank was discovered by the new manager after doing surprise cash checks in the safe of the bank.
"The new branch manager discovered a total of Ksh22.7M was missing after checking the money inside the safe," Leila stated.
Kipchelele had been working at the branch from 2013 to 2020 when the new manager was posted there.