KENYA COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.the-star.co.ke/local/western--nyanza/63381-computers-stolen-at-bungoma-council-offices

Computers stolen at Bungoma council offices

MONDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2012 17:30 BY JOHN NALIANYA

THEFT: The Bungoma County Council offices where 20 computers were stolen over the weekend. Photo/JOHN NALIANYA

At least 20 computers worth about Sh2 million were stolen from the Bungoma County Council over the weekend. The computers mainly from the treasury department are said to have contained  crucial information and police suspect those behind the robbery wanted to destroy  the information

Council  clerk Samuel Kibaara  however said yesterday that no information has been lost as the two main servers were not tempered with. “We have lost in terms of monetary value but no information was lost as our two main servers are intact and we still consider it as a normal robbery,”he said

Controversy however surrounded the  motive of the theft as most of the senior staff were present at the council compound when the thugs  made away with the computers at  7.00pm. A staff who sought anonymity questioned how thugs could have made away with  such a large number of  computers as at 7PM while some employees were still at the council's offices. “If some members of staff of council are said to have been  present at the council and are saying they saw a group of strangers hovering  in the corridors and communicating via their cellphones,why aren't they being arrested as the first suspects,?”he questioned

Milo ward  councillor Patroba Soita  led other councillors  in calling  for the police to investigate a senior chief officer at the council who is said to have been seen around the council compound  with a group of people a few minutes before the ordeal. "We are calling on the police to investigate both the chief officers if at all they want to come with anything meaningful,"he said.

Another school of thought argued that the aim of the theft was to destroy vital in formation in the computers which had information on how the  recently received  15 million shillings  remitted as land rates from the Nzoia sugar company had been used. The money has been at the centre of controversy with some councillors saying the money had been misused  demanding clear records for the same.

A full council meeting held previously resolved to   have 8.5 million shilings of the money used  to pay contractors who the council owes close 20 million but this has never come to pass. The councillors had however accused the council treasurer Onesmus Mwehu  and clerk Samuel Kibaara   for having ulterior motives with the money because they had declined to pay contractors even after resolutions of a full council meeting.

Our source at the council further  told us that prior to the ordeal a group of contractors had camped at the affected offices demanding for payments but the officers had taken them in circles. By the time we went to the press police had already arrested five people all of them night watchmen  but a councillor at the council  argued that that was just cover up. Council chairman Meshack Museveni promised to leave  no stone unturned while at the same time calling on the police to speed up their investigations.