{"id":130699,"date":"2026-02-11T14:02:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/eacc-investigates-bungoma-countys-sh3-7mn-christmas-tree-spending\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T14:02:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:02:59","slug":"eacc-investigates-bungoma-countys-sh3-7mn-christmas-tree-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/eacc-investigates-bungoma-countys-sh3-7mn-christmas-tree-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"EACC Investigates Bungoma County\u2019s Sh3.7mn Christmas Tree Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 11 \u2013 The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has launched investigations into the Bungoma County Government over the controversial spending of Sh3.7 million on a Christmas tree lighting event<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The probe comes days after the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) invited the anti-graft agency to investigate the alleged misuse of public funds.<\/p>\n<p>The anti-graft agency said the scope of the inquiry has since widened following revelations that the event was preceded by a \u201cbenchmarking\u201d trip to Uganda by 22 Members of the County Assembly (MCAs), at an additional cost of Sh6.6 million to taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka appeared before the Senate PAC on Thursday to respond to queries raised by the Auditor General.<\/p>\n<p>During the session, senators asked the EACC to take over the matter for a comprehensive investigation.<br \/>According to the Auditor General\u2019s report, the County Government spent Sh 3.689 million in September 2019\u2014three months before Christmas\u2014to facilitate the tree lighting event.<\/p>\n<p>Senators questioned the timing and source of the funds, which were allegedly withdrawn from a county vote through what has been described as fictitious imprest.<\/p>\n<p>In letters seen by Capital FM, the EACC confirmed it is investigating claims that fictitious imprest was issued to facilitate the MCAs\u2019 benchmarking trip to Mbale, Uganda, ahead of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony held at the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission has directed the county government to submit original documents related to both the benchmarking trip and the Christmas event.<\/p>\n<p>These include requisitions, budgets, imprest warrants, cashbooks, bank deposit records, and personal files of the officials involved.<\/p>\n<p>The requested files cover named MCAs and key assembly staff who were in office during the period under review.<\/p>\n<p>The investigations are expected to establish whether public funds were irregularly spent and if any officials should be held accountable.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 11 \u2013 The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has launched investigations into the Bungoma County Government over the controversial spending of Sh3.7 million on a Christmas tree lighting event. The probe comes days after the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) invited the anti-graft agency to investigate the alleged misuse of public funds. [&hellip;]<\/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-130699","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\/130699","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=130699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}