EACC to recover Ksh.708,664 from ex-county official who received double salary

The High Court has ordered the recovery of Ksh.708,664 paid irregularly to a former Homa Bay County Government employee between February 2015 and May 2018.

In a judgment delivered on September 18, 2026, Justice Benjamin Mwikya Musyoki found that Evelyne Adhiambo Ogweno received additional salary payments from the county government during the period.

The court ordered Ogweno and the fourth defendant in the case to jointly and severally refund the money to the government.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) had sued Ogweno and three former county payroll officials after investigations into alleged multiple salary payments to employees and former employees of the county government.

According to the court, Ogweno was initially appointed as a registered community health nurse in 2013 before being appointed by the government as a nurse in January 2014.

Her basic salary at entry level was Ksh.19,323, with a maximum of Ksh.24,662.00, subject to annual increments.

The court noted that between February 2015 and May 2018, Ogweno received KSh 708,664 in additional payments through her bank account. The EACC relied on bank statements and other documents to establish the payments.

The court also considered an email from Ogweno in which she undertook to repay the excess money in monthly instalments of Ksh.10,000. Justice Musyoki said the undertaking amounted to an acknowledgement that she had received the excess payments.

The judge ruled that the money was not owed to Ogweno and was therefore irregular and recoverable, regardless of whether the payments were fraudulent, deliberate or resulted from an error.

“What matters is that she received payments from the government which she was neither entitled to nor had earned. Whether the same were salaries or other emoluments is not material. They remain irregular and recoverable. I therefore find and hold that on a balance of probabilities, the 1st defendant received undeserved and irregular payments from the government amounting to Ksh.708,664.00,” the judgment states.

However, the court dismissed the EACC's claim against the second and third defendants, finding that the Commission had not sufficiently proved that they authorised or facilitated the irregular payments.

The court found that two payroll systems, a manual system and the Integrated Payroll and Personal Data (IPPD) system, were operating concurrently. Evidence before the court indicated that the double payments were linked to the manual payroll system.

The court found the fourth defendant liable after noting that he was involved in the manual payroll system and had not participated in the proceedings to deny the allegations against him.

In its final orders, the court declared the Ksh.708,664 in additional salary payments irregular and ordered Ogweno and the fourth defendant to jointly and severally pay the amount, with interest at court rates from the date the suit was filed until payment in full.

They were also required to cover EACC’s costs of the suit. The claims against the second and third defendants were dismissed, and EACC was ordered to cover their suit costs.