Former Youth Fund boss guilty of corruption, fined Ksh.1 million

A Nairobi court has found a former Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund guilty of abusing his office and fined him Ksh.1 million or six months in jail.

Juma Mwatata Mwangala was charged with irregularly awarding a Ksh.200 million tender to supply the youth across the country with automated hatcheries.

The former Youth Fund Boss was convicted by Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Felix Kombo who ruled that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that he did not comply with the procurement regulations.

Mwangala was accused of using his office, on August 16 2012, as the Youth Enterprise Development Fund Accounting Officer to improperly confer a benefit on Comnete Technologies Ltd a contract worth Ksh.208, 530,000 for supply, delivery and installation of 1,050 hatching machines without the requisite approval of the Corporation’s Board.

He used his influence to pay the supplier before advance payment bond of 30 per cent as required in the contract was made to the Youth Fund. The supplier later provided the bond on August 20, 2012.

Magistrate Kombo however acquitted Mwangala on two other counts of engaging in a project without prior planning and failure to comply with the laws relating to management of public funds due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of the hatcheries revealed that they were not approved by the board, and neither had a feasibility study been conducted.