Former Director General of the National Museum of Kenya Mzalendo Kibunja and six others facing corruption allegations of embezzling Ksh490 million have been freed on a bond of Ksh10 million each with an alternative of a Ksh5 million cash bail.
Milimani Chief Magistrate Victor Wakumile on Tuesday freed the seven accused persons on an alternative cash bail of Ksh5 million each after they denied several charges of conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, abuse of office, financial misconduct, acquisition of proceeds of crime and money laundering charged against them by the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).
Kibunja was charged alongside Stanvas Ongola (Director Human Resource) Oliver Rabour (Administration Payroll ICT), Wycliffe Ongata (Payroll accountant) and business Oscar Mwaura together with his companies namely Altcoms Enterprises and Florah Technical Services with mismanagement of Ksh490 million at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) between Financial Years 2015-16 and 2021-22.
In the first count, the accused persons were charged that between January 2016 and February 1, 2022, they conspired to commit a corruption offence namely embezzlement of Ksh441,392,075 being public funds fraudulently paid as salaries and gratuity to persons purportedly (ghost workers) employed by the National Museums of Kenya.
Kibunja was separately charged with abusing his office by improperly allowing Ksh441,392,075 to be paid to ghost works at the NMK.
"Between June 2026 and February 1, 2022, within Nairobi County Kibunja being a public officer employed by Public Service to with Director General National Museums of Kenya failed to comply with Regulation 121 of the Public Finance Management of 2015 by incurring a wasteful expenditure of Ksh441,392,075 being salaries and gratuity paid to persons purportedly employed by NMK," the charge sheet states.
On his side, Odhiambo was alone accused of acquiring Ksh14,560,446 from Mwaura and Owuor through his company known as Galmalink Enterprises while knowing the said money formed part of proceeds of crime acquired from National Museum of Kenya unlawfully paid as salaries to non-existent workers.
Mwaura through his company Altcoms Enterprises is alleged to have illegally acquired Ksh24,510,000 from NMK between September 2021 and June 2022.
