The National Youth Service second grand heist has astonished Kenyans as fresh details emerge of suppliers paid millions for supplying virtually nothing.
At the centre of the new Sh9 billion theft is 30-year-old Ann Wambere Wanjiku Ngirita who supplied air to NYS.
Ngirita going by reports by detectives probing the theft, walked away with a sizeable sum of cash from the loot despite the fact she never tendered to supply anything to NYS.
Interestingly, she does not have any physical office. According to Daily Nation, all she did was to walk to NYS College in Gilgil where she met a procurement officer and requested she be allowed to supply goods.
On the paper trail, she was supposed to supply foodstuff, stationery, hammers, and firewood. She received money for this “supply” through her account in the name of her company- Annwaw Investment.
Her admission to receiving the money was coupled by a surprise in that she has no office. She used a Certificate of Registration of Business and a KRA tax compliance certificate to get a contract at NYS.
She faces fraudulence charges of Sh59 million in one of the transactions seen. She will also be charged with acquisition of public property, contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
In one of the grilling sessions, she told detectives that the procurement officer gave her a Local Purchase Order for the supply of canned beef, pineapples, beans, biscuits and hammers to the NYS.
Interestingly, she said she does not know where the goods were sourced, their cost and if they were delivered though she personally filled invoices.
“I don’t know what I supplied but I was shown the vouchers at the DCI,” reads part of her statement.
“I’m not aware of the procurement process as I have never been involved in any,” adds the statement.
Ngirita is among 43 people who have been at the center of investigations being conducted by DCI.
Ngiriti operates three bank accounts; Annwaw Investment, Ann Wambere, and Ann Wambere Wanjiku.
“I mandated my mother, Lucy Wambui Ngirita, to operate the account for Ann Wambere Wanjiku Investments,” she said.
Her mother owns two firms namely Waluco and Ngiwaco Investments which are among ten entities whose directors were summoned by DCI for investigation.
Probed about withdrawing the money paid by NYS, she said her mother withdrew it through one of her accounts and she thought it was paying a loan her mother usually paid.
Ngirita completed her high school in 2008. She opened a shop in 2010 and it later closed the same year. She later traveled to Germany for an academic course and later worked for a company “she could not remember its name”.
Here, she earned €1,200 (Sh141, 600) a month and worked for a year. She then registered Annwaw and Ann Wambere Wanjiku Investments on June 16, 2015.
Besides supplying to NYS Gilgil, she also supplied NYS mechanical and transport department in Nairobi.
A background check reveals humble grounds for her family with her mother working as a respectable cereals trader in Naivasha where she was brought up.
However, the business thrived and the family opened several companies that changed their lives.
“She was in the cereals trade and operated the mill before venturing into the supplies business. That changed the family’s fortunes,” a family friend told Daily Nation.
“The whole family ventured into the business, opening several companies,” a businessman added.
The Ngirita’s have lucrative supply tenders with Naivasha Maximum Security Prison where they supply cereals since 2004.
However, the tender supply with NYS according to neighbors catapulted the family to instant riches.