Nairobi county governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko now wants former education CEC Janet Ouko who resigned earlier this week investigated by the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission over an alleged massive corruption in the education docket.
Ouko, who had served in the education docket that includes Youth and Sports, for one year and two months, announced her resignation on Monday through a letter to Governor Mike Sonko.
Sonko today welcomed are resignation and now says preliminary findings have unraveled loss of millions of shillings made for bursaries during her tenure as the education boss in the county government and therefore she should be probed.
Sonko while addressing the media in Mombasa on Wednesday said Ouko misused bursary funds meant for needy Nairobi students through a well orchestrated scheme with cartels where the monies were channeled to private bank accounts in Nairobi.
“The former CEC and her staff have been issuing bursary cheques to Obudhe education centre during the 2013-17 era before I become the governor. In total Sh10 million for the 2017-2018 lost under her watch through scandals,” Sonko said.
Sonko claims Ouko resigned when she was asked to account for the lost funds, and instead she has been accusing him of frustrating her and blackmailing her. He says more suspects are going to be nabbed over corruption.
“When we disbursed the Ksh 357 million for bright students last year, some senior officers in the education docket conspired with cartels and returned the chaques which they then directed to their private companies, under my watch this will never happen,” he added.
The governor also wants Banks which could have colluded with the corrupt individuals, probed and their accounts freezed and monies recovered for the development.
“If you lose public funds made for bursaries and asked to account for it, is that what we call blackmail or frustrations, we are not going to sit and watch people collude with cartels to swindle public resources,” said Sonko.
The Nairobi Governor also said there is no leadership crisis in Nairobi warning that his mission is to deal with corruption within his government.
“Nairobi County is very stable and there is no crisis, each and every governor has each style of leadership and for Nairobi everything is intact,” he added.
The governor also announced that he intends to name his deputy governor Friday this week amid concerns of leadership loopholes in the county government.
“I was just about to name by full cabinet, and I will name my deputy governor probably on Friday when I return to Nairobi,” said Sonko.