BY SAM ALFAN.
Nairobi Anti-Corruption Court has heard that Governor Ali Korane administration received Sh 233million as conditional grant for the Kenya Urban Support Program (KUSP) from World Bank.
Vincent Onyango Ogutu, a former co-ordinator for the Urban Support program andthe first witness to testify in Korane graft case confirmed that the said amount was dispatched to the county for the urban development.
“The purpose of the grant of over Sh 233 million to Garissa was to finance infrastructure investment in the urban areas in municipalities,” said Ogutu.
The witness also informed the court that World Bank had released at total of sh 11.5 billion to 45 counties for urban upgrading.
“The project in question was a conditional grant and the purpose of the project was supposed to establish and strengthen urban institutions to deliver improved services and infrastructure in 45 counties with exemptions of Nairobi and Mombasa,” said Ogutu.
The witnesses further table in court a letter dated October 22,2020 showing the release of the disbursement grant for the year 2018 to 2019 that was signed by Treasury Principal Secretary Charles Mwaura.
However, the magistrate adjourned the matter to June 28 due to documents hitch.
This is after Korane’s lawyers Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Issa Mansour confirm to court they did not have about 300 copies of the documents the witneses was to rely on while giving his evidence.
The lawyers sought to have the case which was schedule to be heard this week takeout of the hearing list in order to obtain the documents from the EACC investigating officers.
In the case Korane is charged alongside the county finance chief officer Ibrahim Nur Malow, Head of Treasury Mohammed Ahmed Abdullahi, Municipality County Executive Officer Abdi Shale and the Municipal head of accounting Ahmed Abdullahi.
The accused person have since denied the graft charges relating to misappropriation of Sh 233 million for a World Bank-funded project.
The charges involve a conspiracy to commit an offence of economic crime, misappropriation of public funds and willful failure to comply with law relating to management of funds.
They allegedly committed the offences between February 25 and September 30, 2019.
