Former Youth and Gender Principal Secretary Lilian Omollo, former National Youth Service (NYS) director Richard Ndubai, three companies and 33 others on Friday pleaded not guilty to 54 fresh charges in relation to the loss of Sh167.7 million at the NYS.
Omollo, Ndubai, and several former public officials who appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate Lucas Onyina of Anti-Corruption Court are accused of conspiring to commit an economic crime by allowing the payment of Sh167,715,700 to three companies – Firstling Limited, Kunjiwa Enterprises and Ameritrade Limited.
They are alleged to have committed the offences on diverse dates between April 6, 2016 and May 13, 2017.
The fresh charges ranged from conspiracy to commit an economic crime, abuse of office, willful failure to comply with procurement rules, neglect of official duty, fraudulent payments to companies that did not supply goods, making false documents and breach of public trust.
Those charged include senior, middle and lower cadre government officials and business entities that played a key role in the NYS scandal.
In the case the former PS alone faced six counts of abuse of office charges and willful failure to comply with procedures relating to management of public funds.
The 38 accused persons were charged afresh after the prosecution amended some charges and consolidated the files.
The magistrate set pretrial hearing for February 1, 2019.
