Migori County Governor Okoth Obado has been released on a Ksh8.7 million cash bail or Ksh20 million bond in Ksh73.4 million graft case.
Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi on Monday August 31, 2020 ordered that Obado be barred from accessing Migori County office until the case is concluded.
He directed that the governor be escorted to pick his belongings.
Obado was arrested alongside his four children on August 26 after surrendering to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) offices in Kisii for questioning over the alleged embezzlement of public funds.
The accused denied all the counts of graft at the Migori county government on Friday when they were arraigned.
In today’s bail ruling, Obado and his children were ordered to deposit their passports in court.
While approving the arrest and prosecution of the suspects last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji said the county chief irregularly received the money through his children from companies trading with the county.
This, according to Haji, happened between 2013/14 and 2016/17 financial years.
Investigations also showed that the companies belonged to persons closely related to Obado.
The companies are; Misoft Company Limited, Tarchdog Printers, Deltrack ICT services, Seletrack Consultants, Mactebac Contractors, Joyush Business, Swyfcon Engineering, Atinus Services, Kajulu business, Victorious Investment, Dolphins Softwares, Dankey Press and Pesulus Services.
The business proprietors are his three brothers: Jared Peter Kwaga, Patroba Ochanda and Joram Opala. The others were his mother, Penina Auma Otago and his sisters-in-law Christine Akinyi and Carolyne Onyango.
An audit trail showed that Ksh38.9 million was wired to his three children; Dan Okoth, Jerry Okoth, and Susan Okoth.
This money was used to pay for their school fees and daily upkeep. Some was also used to purchase two Toyota Land Cruiser V8.
