{"id":117495,"date":"2025-07-03T06:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T06:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/03\/audit-report-shows-karatina-university-ex-vc-muchiri-paid-himself-sh13-4mn-gratuity-before-retirement\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T06:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T06:04:03","slug":"audit-report-shows-karatina-university-ex-vc-muchiri-paid-himself-sh13-4mn-gratuity-before-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/audit-report-shows-karatina-university-ex-vc-muchiri-paid-himself-sh13-4mn-gratuity-before-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Audit report shows Karatina University ex-VC Muchiri paid himself Sh13.4mn gratuity before retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 3 \u2013 Revelations before a parliamentary watchdog committee revealed how a former Vice-Chancellor of Karatina University irregularly paid himself Sh13.49 million in gratuity just two days before leaving office without having cleared from the institution, as required by law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appearing before the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance, university top management were put to task to explain the payment, which the Auditor-General flagged in her report for the financial year ending June 30, 2023.<\/p>\n

The report revealed that Mucai Muchiri, the former VC, processed and approved the payment while still in office. This, despite having not formally cleared with the university a prerequisite for any final dues to be settled.<\/p>\n

The Auditor-General further noted that there was no evidence of value for money for the payout, which also included Sh971,000 in a \u2018value for money allowance\u2019.<\/p>\n

When questioned by MPs, Prof. Muchiri admitted to approving the payment himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I paid myself,\u201d he said when asked to confirm the committee\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

However, he defended the move, stating that his contract terms allowed for the gratuity and that there was no requirement to wait for his departure.<\/p>\n

But Karatina University\u2019s current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Linus Muthuri, told the committee that to date, Prof. Muchiri has not officially cleared with the institution.<\/p>\n

The committee also heard that the former VC had received Sh1.8 million in transport allowances despite being assigned an official university vehicle
a violation of Public Finance Management Act.<\/p>\n

Prof. Muthuri\u2019s attempt to defend his predecessor, claiming the allowance was for days the official car was unavailable, was met with sharp criticism from MPs, who accused him of enabling irregular payments and entertaining fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fraud. It\u2019s illegal and unacceptable.How do you justify paying transport allowances to someone with a government-issued car? And how does he clear himself while still holding office?\u201dposed the committee chair Wanami Wamboka.<\/p>\n

The committee declared Prof. Muthuri incompetent for attempting to exonerate his predecessor and directed that the full amount be recovered from Prof. Muchiri within a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cannot recover the Sh13 million from the former VC, we will fine you for abetting the illegality,\u201d Wamboka warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has never been done in accordance with HR policy, and the more you try to cover it up, the worse it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee further directed the university to freeze any further gratuity or terminal payments until full clearance is confirmed and a formal audit is completed.<\/p>\n

The house team warned all public universities and colleges, cautioning vice-chancellors and principals against flouting financial regulations or embarking on new capital projects before completing existing ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are losing billions in public resources to stalled and mismanaged projects. This culture of impunity must stop.We will hold university bosses personally accountable for any financial mismanagement,\u201d the committee chair stated.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 3 \u2013 Revelations before a parliamentary watchdog committee revealed how a former Vice-Chancellor of Karatina University irregularly paid himself Sh13.49 million in gratuity just two days before leaving office without having cleared from the institution, as required by law. Appearing before the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance, university […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}