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HIGHLIGHTS REQUIRING INVESTIGATION OF QWASO AND COUNTY EDUCATION OFFICER OF UASIN GISHU

I am a stakeholder, a director of one of the Private Schools in Uasin Gishu County. Apart from my teaching career, I am also a private investigator specialized in public service delivery and corruption. Due to the sensitivity of the matter, I will hide my identity.
I would like to highlight the level of inefficiency and corruption taking place in the office of the ministry of Education, uasin gishu county office specifically on matters schools registration as I narrate below.
The ministry of education issued guidelines late 2021 indicating authorized fees required to be paid by each school seeking registration as follows: Kes. 10,000 (ten Thousand) for our schools (private) and kes. 2,000 (Two Thousands) for government schools. The money is to be paid in form of bankers cheques only.
To date, I have not received a receipt of the cheque I submitted on 10th December 2021. This has not been the case since previously in the year 2019 when I applied for provisional registration I was issued with an official receipt of KES. 10,000 (Ten Thousand). I wondered what could have changed and whether it was right to receive cheque from me which is equivalent to cash without receipting and what evidence I would present in case someone denies my payment. This is where my actual investigation began.
In order to find out why such was happening, I decided to seek information from one of the staffs (Identity withheld) of Kenya Private schools’ association, Uasin Gishu chapter who confirmed that none of the private schools approved for registration in the meeting of the board in charge of registration of schools at the county (something like DEB, not so sure) in October has been issued with a single receipt. I decided to inquire from my fellow private schools on my own and surprisingly, none of the 10 schools I enquired from had been issued with a single receipt. I realized that I was not alone and saw I was encouraged.
I am not good at government financial management regulations but I decided to inquiry from one of my friends based at the district treasury in Nandi, she informed me that such cheques collected should be submitted to the district treasury for onward remittance to the relevant ministry head office revenue collection section. Or if the department collects on its own, the department should do the same but only through the district treasury. In other words, he meant that the treasury is the final regulator in such funds and no single department can manage on their own without involving the treasury.
This prompted my investigation to head to the district treasury to inquire whether the cheques were being submitted to them or if there was any such collections in their records. First, he confirmed to me what I was told by the Nandi friend is the true position and the right process. Secondly, he also confirmed that that is what the ministry of education Uasin Gishu does. Thirdly, he told me that they normally submit the collection at the end of every financial year and as at the end of June 2021 they submitted all they had collected for 2020/21 to the PS ministry of Education. When I tried to inquire how much the district treasury has received for 2021/22 financial year, he refused to give that information but instead referred me to the head of department in charge. I could not go to the department or ask anyone in the department since it was a subject of my investigation but my urge to know more left me with more questions and answers. What was cooking? Where could all these cheques being taken to? If they were still at the ministry office, why had they not been receipted? What was the agenda of keeping them that long?
I later decided begin my investigation to understand the motives behind not receipting of the cheques. What I discovered was a shock. I came to find out that the office had opened another account where they deposited the cheques. The bank account at the diamond trust bank (DTB), account no: 0746173001 under the name county director of education-uasin gishu had received several cheque deposits amounting to Kes. 402,000 (Four hundred Two Thousand). I was able to establish that the QWASO in charge of the county, Mr. Harrison Indimuli together with the county education officer, Dr. Milton Nzioka were signatories in that account. Well, as much I was not able to get the name (s) of other signatories in that account, I confirmed that the district accountant or any other treasury official was not amongst them. So far the money is not intact since several withdrawals had been made.
Efforts to get further information became almost impossible at this point since I could not approach the bank since I was not sure whether they would cooperate on providing such confidential information belonging to their clients.

I therefore seek to request investigation into the following:
1. Why did the county education officer, Mr. Nzioka and the QWASO, Mr, Indimuli decide to open a parallel account?
2. What happened to the account that has always been used to deposit the cheques since the schools’ registration services were delegated to the counties?
3. Is there any cheque that has been deposited into the previous account ad if yes how much?
4. Is the in charge of district treasury and the treasury auditor aware and what actions have they taken?
5. Is the ministry of education aware and did they issue any authority to open a parallel account?
6. Why were the cheques deposited without being receipted?
7. Did the signatories receive any authority from the treasury or the Ministry headquarters to withdraw cash from the account and what were the withdrawals used for?

Other complains that we seek your address
Following reports from my colleagues, they have reported that the QWASO in charge of the county (Harrison Indimuli), harasses them and demands for bribes when he visits their school. One colleagues narrate how he arrived in his school some time in December in a white GK vehicle and demanded for amount of money he refused to disclose. The colleague also reported that he arrived at the school without notice or being accompanied by any of the local sub county education officials of Kapseret sub-county. While demanding for the cash, he mentions that he is doing it under the authority and on behalf of the county education officer, Mr. Nzioka.
Back to the office of the QWASO, he has assigned staff who collect cash from stakeholders on his behalf. The day I visited, I found 3 ladies but I can only remember one by the name of Lydia since she faced me (she didn’t know I was investigating), I gave her Kes.500 and I heard someone address her as Lydia.
I am aware that before QWASO, came to uasin gishu, he was a deputy regional director of education. Was he being sent to head a county docked demotion? And if yes, why was he demoted? Were these characters known in him that prompted his demotion?
Answers to all these would help.

Unanimous
Eldoret