Court orders former Homa Bay County clerk, wife to return stolen Ksh.26M

The High Court has ordered former Homa Bay County Clerk Bob Kephas Otieno and his wife Evelyne Ogutu to return Ksh.26,272,460 reported to have been stolen by the pair from public coffers.

Justice Esther Maina delivered the ruling on Thursday after investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) established that Otieno abused his office and wired the said amount directly to the bank account of Nyangume Enterprises, a company belonging to his wife, even though it did not render any services to the county.

Some of the loot was subsequently wired to Otieno's bank accounts as per EACC findings.

The graft watchdog filed a recovery suit in 2018 after the couple reportedly refused to adhere to an order to return the stolen cash.

In her judgement, Justice Maina ordered the former clerk and his wife to remit the said payments to EACC, plus a 12 percent interest for each year that the cash remained missing.

They were also ordered to cover the costs of the law suit.

The Homabay case is among various recovery suits worth over Ksh.40 billion that are currently active in various courts across the country where EACC seeks to recover corruptly acquired assets by public officials.