Three Kisii County officials charged with issuing fake liquor licenses

Three Kisii County Government officials were on Tuesday arraigned for allegedly defrauding the county through issuance of fake liquor licenses and failing to remit revenue collected.

The three; George Otieno Oketch (Accountant), Mogeni Sikare Kefa (Senior Liquor Licensing Officer) and James Omwoyo Obare (Weights and Measures Officer) were arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate N.S Lutta.

They were charged that on diverse dates between October 2015 and November 2016 they jointly and willfully failed  to remit Ksh.2.5 million after issuing licenses to liquor traders.

They faced a second charge of conspiring to commit an economic crime by engaging in a scheme to defraud the county government of Kisii revenue amounting to Ksh.2.5 million through issuance of fake liquor license to unsuspecting traders and failing to remit the proceeds to the count government.

Oketch also faced four separate charges of uttering  a false document and another charge of abuse of office.

Mogeni, on the other hand, faced two other charges of forgery and abuse of office.

Obare also faced a separate charge of impersonation, where he was accused that he falsely presented himself as the chair, Liquor court Kisii in the year 2016.

They all denied the charges and were granted a bond of Ksh.1 million and a surety of a similar amount each.

The case will be mentioned on June 3rd.