Milimani Anti-Corruption Court has sentenced former Samburu Governor Moses Kasaine Lenolkulal to eight years in prison or pay a fine of Sh83. 4 million fine.
Lenolkulal and ten others were found guilty of the 2013 to 2019 scandal in which he supplied fuel to his county.
He was sentenced alongside the County Secretary, six Chief Officers of Finance, Environment, Agriculture, Transport, Land, and Gender, a Deputy Director of Education, and the Head of Supply Chain Management.
In 2019 Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission investigated a complaint of financial malfeasance, conflict of interest, and embezzlement of funds by senior officials of the Samburu County Government.
Then in April 2019 the commission arraigned 11 individuals before the Anti-Corruption Court in Milimani, where they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On July 13, 2023, the Court ruled that the Prosecution had proved a prima facie case against ten of the 11 accused persons on several counts and placed them to their defence.
Now Lenolkulal who was the first Samburu County boss becomes the first former Governor to be sentenced in a corruption case since the advent of Devolution.
He was found guilty of conflict of interest and unlawful acquisition of public property.
Magistrate Thomas Nzyoki said Lenolkulal acted in a conflict of interest. He awarded a fuel supply tender to his Oryx petrol station.
The ex-governor’s proxy Hesbon Ndathi was sentenced to four years or a fine of Sh1 million for unlawfully acquiring public property.
The judge convicted the other eight accused persons of abuse of office.
They were fined fined between Sh700,000 and Sh1 million each, or face four-year jail terms.
In addition to the sentence, the ex-governor was also barred from holding an elective office for 10 years.
