TURKANA – The arrest of three people over alleged irregular dealings involving Ksh92.06 million in Turkana County Government funds has once again placed the management of public resources in the spotlight in a county where 82.7 per cent of the population lives in poverty.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) arrested the three suspects on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, and directed five others to surrender as investigations into alleged conflict of interest, unlawful acquisition of public property, money laundering, and dealing with proceeds of crime entered the prosecution stage. The latest investigation concerns transactions involving two companies that the EACC says received a combined Ksh92.06 million from the Turkana County Government between the 2013/2014 and 2024/2025 financial years.
The three people arrested include a Senior Assistant Community Health Officer in the Turkana County Government, a director of a private company that did business with the county, and an employee of a non-governmental organisation. The identities of the eight people targeted for prosecution had not been publicly disclosed in the EACC-linked report published on August 26.
According to the EACC, one of the companies received Ksh62.05 million from the county government. Investigators established that a Principal Finance Officer and a Principal Accountant participated in processing and validating payments made to the company. The commission also established that one of the officers was a signatory to the company’s account, raising concerns over a possible conflict between the official’s public responsibilities and private interests.
In a separate inquiry, the EACC says another Turkana County employee, who was also a director of a private company, used the firm to secure five county contracts valued at Ksh30.01 million. Investigators further allege that money paid to the two companies was subsequently withdrawn in cash through transactions suspected to have been intended to conceal the movement of the funds and their ultimate beneficiaries. The investigation covers allegations of conflict of interest, unlawful acquisition of public property, money laundering, and dealing with proceeds of crime.
The EACC says that after completing its investigations, it forwarded the inquiry file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. “Upon conclusion of investigations, the Commission forwarded the inquiry file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who approved the prosecution of eight public officials, companies and company directors,” the commission said.
The three suspects arrested on August 26 are expected to appear before the Anti-Corruption Court in Eldoret on Thursday, August 27, while the other five have been directed to present themselves to the EACC for processing. The commission has also said it will pursue recovery and forfeiture of public funds and assets established to have been acquired through corrupt conduct or other unlawful means. But the latest case carries significance beyond the alleged transactions because of the economic circumstances facing the people of Turkana.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) recorded Turkana as the county with the highest overall poverty rate in Kenya in its 2022 poverty estimates. The KNBS placed Turkana’s overall poverty rate at 82.7 per cent, meaning that more than four out of every five residents were living below the national overall poverty line, compared to the national poverty rate of 39.8 per cent.
The KNBS figures further show that approximately 818,000 people in Turkana were living in poverty in 2022, from an estimated county population of 989,000. Turkana’s poverty gap was also the highest nationally at 35.1 per cent, indicating the depth of the shortfall between the consumption of poor people and the poverty line.
The county’s hardcore poverty rate stood at 42.6 per cent, also the highest in the country, while food poverty affected 64.3 percent of residents. The figures were based on the 2022 Kenya Continuous Household Survey, making them older than the current 2026 investigation but still the latest county-level poverty estimates cited by KNBS.
That economic reality gives added weight to questions surrounding the alleged loss or misuse of public resources. The Ksh92.06 million under investigation is not money that exists in isolation from the county’s development challenges; it represents public resources that, if ultimately found to have been unlawfully acquired, could have been available for services and programmes in a county where poverty remains significantly higher than the national average.
The August 2026 investigation also comes after earlier EACC operations involving Turkana County, although those matters are separate from the Ksh92.06 million case. On April 10, 2025, EACC investigators conducted searches at the homes and offices of 10 Turkana County officials as part of an investigation into alleged embezzlement of more than Ksh600 million through suspected fraudulent procurement. The operation involved county executive committee members, chief officers, and other senior county officials.
During the April 10 operation, EACC investigators recovered Ksh6.5 million in cash from the motor vehicle of Michael Eregae, according to an account of the commission’s operation. The commission said the money was suspected to be the proceeds of corruption. The wider investigation concerned alleged fraudulent procurement deals during the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 financial years.
In another separate matter, the EACC pursued recovery proceedings involving Ksh282.4 million linked to alleged procurement fraud involving the Turkana County Government. The commission obtained preservation orders in March 2025 before pursuing restitution of the funds. While these cases are not evidence that the allegations in the separate investigations are proven, nor are they part of the current Ksh92.06 million prosecution, they do illustrate the extent to which Turkana County’s public finances have come under scrutiny by anti-corruption authorities in recent years.
The central issue now moves to the courts, where the allegations against the suspects will have to be tested. The EACC has not established guilt merely by arresting or charging the suspects, and those facing prosecution remain innocent until proven guilty. But for residents of Turkana, the latest investigation raises a question that extends beyond the individuals involved: how effectively are public resources being converted into services and development in a county where poverty remains the highest in Kenya?
The KNBS data show that Turkana contributed about 4.1 per cent of Kenya’s total poor population in 2022, despite having a much smaller share of the country’s population. For communities dealing with limited access to basic services, food insecurity, unemployment, and the challenges associated with living in a vast arid and semi-arid county, allegations involving millions of shillings in public funds inevitably carry a direct public-interest dimension. The Ksh92.06 million investigation therefore places two figures side by side: Ksh92.06 million in public funds under investigation, and an 82.7 percent poverty rate in the county.
The court proceedings scheduled for Thursday, August 27, 2026, are expected to provide further details of the prosecution, including the identities of those charged, the specific counts they face, and the evidence the prosecution intends to rely upon. The EACC, meanwhile, says it will pursue recovery and forfeiture of any public funds or assets ultimately established to have been acquired through corrupt or other unlawful means. For Turkana, the outcome could therefore have implications not only for the individuals and companies facing prosecution, but also for the wider debate over accountability, public spending, and the delivery of services in one of Kenya’s poorest counties.
