School heads defend Ongeri, Kiyiapi

Written By:Diana Okemwa/KNA,    Posted: Tue, Jun 21, 2011

The activists are calling for the immediate resignation of Prof. Ongeri and Prof. Nyong'o over graft scams

Secondary school heads have exonerated education minister Prof. Sam Ongeri and his PS Professor James Ole Kiyiapi from blame over the embezzlement of over 4.2 billion shillings meant for Free Primary and Secondary Education programme.

The head teachers who are meeting in Mombasa instead accused senior officers at the ministry for the loss calling for an overhaul.

Meanwhile, Prof. Ongeri has described the Treasury Audit Report on funds allegedly misappropriated from the Free Primary Education kitty as erroneous and called for a thorough forensic audit by the police to unearth the magnitude of the alleged theft and identify those who perpetrated the scandal.

Prof. Ongeri said the truth about the alleged theft of the FPE Funds could only be un-earthed through a thorough and forensic Police investigation and warned officers who will be found culpable that they will face the full force of the law.

The Minister who was speaking while officially opening the 36^th Annual Conference of the Kenya Secondary Schools Association (KSSHA) Tuesday cited the figure of 26,000 Primary Schools mentioned in the Treasury Audit Report released by his finance counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta as erroneous since there are only 19,000 primary schools in the country.

He said it was unfair for the KACC Director, Prof. PLO Lumumba and a section of the Civil Society and Parliamentarians to call for his resignation since he was not a signatory to the FPE funds.

" I am being asked to take political responsibility for funds over which I was not a signatory", said the Minister, adding that those accounting officers who used to sign for the disbursement of the funds will be punished incase they are found to have colluded with other parties to pilfer the money from the ministry's coffers.

He also called on police to launch thorough investigations on the alleged theft and urged Kenyans to avoid witch hunting on innocent people and wait for the police to carry out a forensic audit of the alleged disappearance of billions of shillings from the ministry.

"Kenyans should stop engaging in mob lynching and wait for due process to take place, " said the minister.

He also called for the recall of officers who were transferred from the ministry after another scandal over the theft of another batch of FPE funds was unearthed so that they could shed more light on the matter.

Prof. Ongeri described the treasury report t as a witch hunt since Treasury has always seconded an auditor to the Ministry of Education to keep track of how FPE Funds were being disbursed since 2003 when the program was introduced.

"This auditor from the treasury has always been tasked to raise the red flag whenever he saw anomalies in the manner of disbursing this money, yet he never did this during the 2003/2004, 2004/2005,2005/2006,2006/2007 and 2007/2008 financial years when the scandals occurred", said the Minister.

Also present was Education Permanent Secretary, Prof. James ole Kiyiapi, TSC Chairman Ibrahim Hussein and KSSHA Chairman Cleophas Tirop.

On Sunday, the National Civil Society Consortium (NCSC) called on Prof. Ongeri and Prof. Anyang' Nyong'o to step aside over corruption allegations in their ministries.

The lobby group also wanted former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Prof. Karega Mutahi to face criminal charges over the loss of 4.2 billion shillings.

The National Congress of Civil Societies urged Nyong'o not to allow his reform credentials be dented by a scandal he may be innocent of.

Limuru MP Peter Mwathi on his part said all those implicated who have done great injustice to the children and the sick of this country and must take political responsibility.

The civil society group is warning that if the two don't heed their call, they will petition the principals to sack them.