The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has secured a court order compelling a former Homa Bay County Assembly clerk and two other individuals to repay Sh12.57 million after being found liable for the fraudulent transfer and receipt of public funds disguised as salary payments.
In its statement on Thursday, the commission said Justice Benjamin Musyoki delivered the ruling on October 16, 2026, holding former county assembly clerk Bob Kephas Otieno, Lillian Achieng and David Obonyo responsible for the irregular transfer of Sh12,571,166.50 from the assembly’s salary suspense account between 2015 and 2017.
The money was channelled into a joint bank account belonging to Achieng and Obonyo, although neither was employed by the Homa Bay County Assembly or the county government.
The case arose from investigations by the EACC into payments authorised by Otieno during his tenure as assembly clerk. According to the commission, Otieno approved transfers to the account between December 24, 2015 and December 22, 2017, with the transactions recorded as salary payments.
However, the transfers involved different amounts paid on irregular dates, a pattern that investigators said did not match the normal schedule of salary payments.
Investigations further established that neither Achieng nor Obonyo held a position within the county assembly or the county government that would have entitled them to receive the money.
At the time, Achieng was working as a teacher employed by the Teachers Service Commission, while Obonyo served as the Business Growth and Development Manager at Equity Bank’s Homa Bay branch.
The commission also established that the two recipients were neither suppliers nor contractors engaged by the county government or the assembly.
The EACC argued that the funds had been unlawfully obtained because they were paid out as salaries to individuals who had no employment relationship with the institutions responsible for the money.
The court found Otieno liable for causing the loss of public funds through corrupt and fraudulent conduct. Achieng and Obonyo were also found liable for fraudulently receiving public money for work they had not performed or services they had not provided.
These findings formed the basis of the court order requiring all three individuals to repay the Sh12.57 million to the government.
The commission filed the recovery case under ACEC Suit No. E011 of 2022, seeking to recover the money transferred from the Homa Bay County Assembly’s salary suspense account.
The proceedings examined how the payments were approved, who received the funds and whether the transactions were genuine salary payments.
Investigators established that the money was transferred to the joint account over a period of about two years, despite the recipients having no employment positions within the county assembly or the county government.
The transactions raised concerns about how public money was managed and monitored within the assembly’s financial systems, particularly the controls governing payments made through the salary suspense account.
The judgment brings the recovery case to a legal outcome, with the three individuals now required to return the funds that the court found had been unlawfully transferred or received.
The ruling also places responsibility on the former clerk, who authorised the payments, and the two recipients who benefited from the transactions.
The EACC continues to pursue the recovery of public funds through court proceedings in cases involving corruption, fraud and irregular financial transactions. Its work includes investigating the loss or misuse of public resources and seeking orders to return such money to the government.
In the Homa Bay case, the court's findings focused on the authorisation of payments from the assembly's salary suspense account and the receipt of public money by individuals who were not county employees.
The commission said the judgment reinforced its efforts to protect public resources and recover money found to have been obtained unlawfully.
The full judgment has been made available on the EACC website, setting out further details of the case and the court's findings.