The High Court has ordered the recovery of Sh708,664 in irregular payments made to a former Homa Bay County Government employee between February 2015 and May 2018.
In a judgment delivered on September 18, 2026, Justice Benjamin Mwikya Musyoki found that Evelyne Adhiambo Ogweno received additional payments from the county government to which she was not entitled.
The court ordered Ogweno and the fourth defendant in the case to jointly and severally refund the money to the Government, together with interest at court rates from the date the suit was filed until payment is made in full. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) had brought the case against Ogweno and three former county payroll officials following investigations into alleged multiple salary payments to current and former county employees.
The court found that Ogweno, who was initially appointed as a registered community health nurse in 2013 and later appointed as a nurse in January 2014, received the additional payments through her bank account between February 2015 and May 2018.
The EACC relied on bank statements and other documentary evidence to establish the payments. At the time of her appointment as a nurse, Ogweno’s basic salary was Sh19,323 at entry level, rising to a maximum of Sh24,662, subject to annual increments.
The judge also considered an email in which Ogweno undertook to repay the excess payments through monthly instalments of Sh10,000. Justice Musyoki found that the undertaking amounted to an acknowledgement that she had received the additional money.
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The court held that the payments were recoverable because Ogweno had not earned or been entitled to the money, regardless of whether they resulted from fraud, deliberate action or an error.
“What matters is that she received payments from the government which she was neither entitled to nor had earned. Whether the same were salaries or other emoluments is not material. They remain irregular and recoverable. I therefore find and hold that on a balance of probabilities, the 1st defendant received undeserved and irregular payments from the government amounting to Ksh.708,664.00,” the judgment states.
However, the court dismissed the EACC’s case against the second and third defendants, finding that the Commission had not provided sufficient evidence to show that they authorised or facilitated the irregular payments.
Evidence before the court showed that the county was operating two payroll systems concurrently; a manual system and the Integrated Payroll and Personal Data (IPPD) system. The court found that the double payments were associated with the manual payroll system.
The fourth defendant was found liable after the court noted his involvement in the manual payroll system and his failure to participate in the proceedings to contest the allegations against him.
In its final orders, the court declared the Sh708,664 in additional payments irregular and ordered Ogweno and the fourth defendant to jointly and severally pay the amount, together with interest at court rates until settlement. The two defendants were also ordered to meet the EACC’s costs of the suit, while the Commission was ordered to pay the costs of the second and third defendants whose claims were dismissed.
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