Kenya: Balala Arrested Over Sh8.5 Billion Corruption in Construction of Kilifi Utalii College

22 December 2023
Capital FM (Nairobi)

Nairobi — Former Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has been arrested over Sh8.5 billion alleged corruption in the construction of the Kilifi Utalii College.

Balala was arrested on Thursday night alongside former Principal Secretary Leah Gwiyo and Joseph Odero an engineer from West Consult Engineers.

EACC Spokesperson Eric Ngumbi said Balala was arrested in Nairobi and will be flown to Mombasa and later driven to a Malindi court to face charges.

Also lined up for prosecution are officials from the Procurement and Finance departments.

EACC has said Balala and his accomplices will face 10 charges related to irregular payment of Sh8.5 billion from the Tourism Fund to put up the Coast branch of the Kenya Utalii College that was renamed Ronald Ngala Utalii College.

"They were arrested after the DPP approved charges and they will be taken to court," the EACC Spokesman said.

They are facing corruption and economic crimes charges that include procurement fraud and misappropriation of public funds.

Investigations established that there were numerous procurement fraud that shot up the approved cost of putting up the college from Sh1.95 billion to 10.4 billion.

This is contained in a Cabinet memo signed by Balala in May 2007.

Read the original article on Capital FM.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 Capital FM. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.