Mutahi Ngunyi refunds gov’t Ksh 11.5M NYS cash

Political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi claims to have returned the excess money paid to him by the National Youth Service (NYS) to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

Speaking when he appeared before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday, September 20, The Consulting House, CEO said he did not understand the circumstance under which the money was deposited in his account claiming he reads malice in the actions.

“Corrupt persons in the Ministry of Devolution wanted to implicate me in a scandal when I started restructuring the system hence their move to deposit excess money in my account,” said Mutahi.

Asked why it took him a year to wire the money back, Mutahi said that he thought the money in his account was from a different client whose payment was to be made around the same time.

“I was expecting Ksh 12 million from a different client and when I got a little less of Ksh 11.8 million, I thought it was from the client.”

“My decision to refund the money came after the realisation that the money came from the Ministry of Devolution.”

He noted that he did not know whether or not his company was single sourced for the tender, saying the question should be directed to the Ministry of Devolution.

In his opinion, Mutahi said that the Ksh 90 million payment, he received from government was fair pricing despite the tender being worth Ksh 2 billion.

Ngunyi had last month promised to refund the Ksh 11.8 million that he “erroneously” received from NYS last year.

The corruption allegations at the NYS led to the resignation of Devolution Permanent Secretary, Peter Mangiti, and NYS Director General, Nelson Githinji, both who are facing charges of corruption in court over the loss of Ksh 791 million at NYS.