Bob Kephas Otieno, the former clerk of the Homa Bay County Assembly, has been ordered by the High Court to refund more than KSh 12.57 million in public funds that were paid out as salaries to two people who never worked for the county.
In a judgment delivered on 16 October 2026, Justice Benjamin Musyoki ruled that Otieno, together with teacher Lillian Achieng and Equity Bank manager David Obonyo, must repay KSh 12,571,166.50 to the government.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the recovery case in 2022 after finding that the money was withdrawn from the Assembly’s salary suspense account between December 2015 and December 2017 and deposited into a joint bank account held by Achieng and Obonyo.Neither of the two recipients had any employment link with the Homa Bay County Assembly or the County Government.
Achieng worked for the Teachers Service Commission while Obonyo served as Business Growth and Development Manager at Equity Bank’s Homa Bay branch.
Court records showed that the payments were recorded as salaries even though there was no payroll entry, no service contract and no evidence that either person had supplied goods or carried out any work for the Assembly.Investigators established that Otieno, as the officer responsible for authorising payments at the time, approved the repeated transfers.
The money left the Assembly’s account on irregular dates and in varying amounts rather than following the normal monthly salary pattern.
The salary suspense account, which is meant to hold funds temporarily while payroll records are checked, was used instead as a channel to move public money into a private account.The court held Otieno liable for causing the loss through corrupt and fraudulent conduct.
Achieng and Obonyo were found liable for receiving the funds without providing any service in return. The judgment is a civil recovery order, meaning the three individuals must now pay the money back. Enforcement of the order remains the next step for the anti-corruption agency.
The case has drawn attention to how public money moved through the Assembly’s financial system for nearly two years without being stopped. County assemblies are expected to keep clear records of who is on the payroll and to check every payment against those records.
In this instance those checks appear to have failed. The ruling adds to ongoing questions about the strength of financial controls inside county institutions and the responsibility of accounting officers who approve the release of public funds.
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