Court freezes Sh18m belonging to 30-year-old Treasury employee

A finance officer at the National Treasury is being investigated by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for fraud.

The commission accuses Tracy Njoki King’e of siphoning Sh37 million from her employer through factitious imprests, and using part of it to purchase Treasury Bills.

Yesterday, Justice Esther Maina froze Sh18 million in her accounts to facilitate investigations by EACC.

The commission believes the money, held in  two accounts at the Cooperative Bank and I&M Bank, was obtained in the form of “extraneous and facilitation allowances’’.

“That an order is hereby issued prohibiting the respondent, her agents, servants or any other persons from withdrawing, transferring, disposing or in any other way dealing with the funds in the banks described herein under to facilitate the commission to complete its investigations before instituting recovery proceedings,” the judge ruled.

According to EACC, Njoki joined her current work station in January 2020 from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives where she had been since 2018.

Her average monthly salary was Sh50,954 between March 2020 and May 2022 which amounted to approximately Sh1.35 million.

Treasury bills 

But during the same period, the commission established that she received Sh37 million disguised as extraneous and facilitation allowances.

Between February 2020 and March 2022, EACC claims, Njoki received Sh24 million as imprests in her Cooperative Bank account, and between February and June 2022, she received Sh11.8 million through her I&M bank account.

EACC’s investigations established that out of the Sh11.8 million received through I&M Bank account, Sh11 million was transferred to her fixed deposit accounts in the same bank while Sh498,000 was withdrawn in cash leaving a balance of Sh400,000.

EACC investigator Dorothy Nanjala  told the court that out of Sh24 million received through her Cooperative Bank account, Sh4.6 million was used to purchase Treasury Bills while Sh2.7 million is the balance in the account.

Consequently, the amount of Sh4,622,271.50 was debited on 6. 6. 2022 for the purpose of the purchase,” EACC has told the court.