Prosecutors have charged a former National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) employee, her husband, and an associate over an alleged KSh 22.15 million fraud that investigators say exploited internal payment systems at the state-owned oil marketer.
- •Detectives from the Investigations Bureau attached to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum say the scheme was orchestrated by Gladys Kahaki Njubi, a former assistant accountant at NOCK, who is accused of abusing her role in processing supplier payments to divert public funds to companies linked to her family network.
- •According to court filings, the money was channeled to five firms associated with Njubi’s husband, Griffin Nyakang’o Omwenga: Zoccom Enterprises Limited, Eceny Ventures Limited, Earthcare Supplier Services, Sparktec Ventures Limited, and Jaffer Petrofill Africa Limited.
- •Omwenga, who was once an aspirant South Mugirango MP seat, has denied any involvement in the scheme, claiming the companies were registered using his personal documents without his knowledge or consent.
“They used my documents to siphon funds,” Omwenga told The Kenyan Wall Street in an interview. “They are all my friends. They cooked charges to implicate me, yet they are the ones who orchestrated all this.”
He further alleged that when he confronted his wife over the transactions, she was interdicted, and claimed she is privy to what he described as “very dirty dealings” at the State oil firm allegedly involving senior management.
The alleged scheme came to light after NOCK flagged irregular payments and lodged a formal complaint, triggering investigations by detectives attached to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. Njubi later resigned from the corporation after the funds had already been disbursed.
The Audit
An internal investigation by the NOCK’s Internal Audit Department found that the alleged fraud spanned two financial years, from 2021 to 2023, and was enabled by critical failures in payment controls within the Finance department.
The audit outlined that KSh 15.34 million was paid out in the 2022/2023 financial year, while Sh6.51 million was traced to the 2021/2022 period. By the time the report was finalised, only KSh 510,110 had been recovered, leaving more than Sh21.6 million outstanding.
Auditors found that Gladys Njubi had been improperly assigned both “creator” and “approver” rights on the corporation’s bank payment portal, contrary to policy, which required her access to be restricted to view-only. This allowed her to independently initiate and authorise payments without secondary approval, effectively bypassing controls.
The report further found that bank account details were altered at the point of uploading payment files to the bank, redirecting funds away from legitimate suppliers even where internal approvals had been obtained. Auditors also documented the booking of false invoices, reprocessing of already settled invoices, and the use of closely resembling or “cloned” company names to conceal fraudulent payments.
Moreover, payment vouchers and invoices were not stamped “PAID,” allowing documents to be reused, while invoices were processed without matching them to Goods Received Notes, breaching mandatory three-way matching procedures. Periodic supplier reconciliations were either not done or not reviewed by supervisors.
The audit identified internal collusion, naming another staff member, James Waringa, as having participated in the scheme alongside the former assistant accountant. Auditors concluded that the losses were not only the result of individual misconduct but also of systemic supervisory failures, including inadequate oversight of user access rights, failure to deactivate dormant supplier accounts, and missing cheque books and incomplete beneficiary data limiting early detection.
A third suspect, Nehemia Onyunge Kibegwa, a director of Kensons Constructions Limited, is accused of receiving millions of shillings through the same payment pipeline, despite investigators finding no evidence of competitive bidding or any contractual relationship with NOCK.
NOCK forwarded the investigation file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). Prosecutors approved charges including conspiracy to defraud, theft by servant, forgery, and possession of proceeds of crime.
