Huge fines a deterrent to boost anti-graft war
A former National Social Security Fund (NSSF) investment manager and three other men are staring at many years in jail after the Anti-Corruption Court convicted and slapped them with massive fines for conspiracy to defraud the fund of Sh1.2 billion.
Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi fined ex-NSSF manager Francis Moturi and stockbroker David Ndirangu and their accomplices, Wilfred Mungoro and Isaac Nyakundi, a whopping Sh4.8 billion or 14 years in jail. Moturi, 72, will pay a Sh2.4 billion fine. The stockbrokers were each fined Sh800 million or serve nine-year jail terms.
Their company, Discount Securities Limited, which has since been liquidated and placed under statutory management, was ordered to compensate the NSSF with Sh4.8 billion for the loss suffered by pensioners.
This is a huge win in the anti-corruption war, especially in the public sector, with an emphatic warning to the crooks that they actually belong behind bars and away from society for a long time. Such a deterrent sentence is necessary to send a clear and firm message to corrupt civil servants who shamelessly steal public funds that their days are numbered.
The convicts tricked the NSSF into believing that they had bought shares for the Fund in listed companies and pocketed Sh1.2 billion through the fraudulent scheme. The magistrate said he relied on Section 48 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, which stipulates the heavy penalties.
It is good that the long arm of the law finally caught up with the fraudsters more than a decade since they were charged with the crime they committed between 2004 and 2007.
This verdict is a decisive step in the anti-graft war. Pending similar cases should be speeded up. That includes the so-called “Covid billionaires”, who siphoned Sh7 billion out of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) through fraudulent procurement but are at large.
All the crooks who have enriched themselves at the public’s expense must be relentlessly pursued and brought to book. BY DAILY NATION
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