National Social Security Fund (NSSF) relations manager Joseph Sooka has been sentenced to five years in jail for embezzling 152.72 million shillings. The funds were embezzled from the NSSF suspense account which Sooka has been in charge of.
Sooka was arraigned anti-corruption court judge Margaret Tibulya on February 17th and found guilty of embezzling NSSF funds, committing four counts of forgery and three counts of uttering false documents.
Justice Margaret Tibulya ordered Sooka to pay amount 152.72 to the fund and barred him from holding any public office for 10 years. Sooka will spend five years in prison for embezzlement, five years for money laundering, three years for each count of forgery and three years for each count of uttering false documents. The sentences will run concurrently.
Sooka is accused of fraudulently transferring Shs 152.72 million from various accounts of ghost claimants to his personal accounts.
Sooka is also said to have used a fake national ID and opened an account in the names of Sifiso Simela Biyomo to which 37 million shillings had been transferred.
Sooka Joseph was prosecuted by chief state attorney Harriet Angum.
On the other hand, These are some of the many questions that are being asked by savers with NSSF and the general public as the uncertainty over its future continues. But the other major question is why are there so many forces on the battleground. Is it the temptation to have easy access to the assets of the fund or the urge to give maximum protection from abuse of the richest financial institution in Eastern Africa?
By asset size, NSSF is the biggest pension fund in the region at almost Shs 18 trillion, while Kenya’s NSSF has an asset size of about Shs 5 trillion (about Kshs 171 billion Kenya). The different forces include the two supervising ministries that were provided for in the NSSF (Amendment) Act, as part of streamlining the management of the two main functions of the fund; provision of social security and investing the saver’s money to give the beneficiaries interest.
Other interested parties are the board, which has also developed signs of disagreements, the former and the current management teams, workers’ parliamentary representatives, the employers, the savers, the regulator, and some external forces. The ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development supervises the investment department of the fund, while the ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development oversees social security.
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