This archive report was first published on 4 December 2019.
On the night of September 1, 2019, the Busia County finance office was engulfed in flames, destroying files containing payments to suppliers and contractors. According to Joseph Ekisa, the acting director of disaster management, the CCTV cameras were off, and only private security guards were on duty.
Ekisa made these revelations during a court hearing where two county staff members, Director of Finance Paul Onono and accountant Evans Wangata, are charged with arson. Ekisa presented an internal investigation report to the court, which found that the suspects were not at the scene of the incident when he arrived with firefighters.
‘It was impossible to determine during the investigation who started the fire or what could have caused the fire,’ Ekisa said. He added that the grill of the burning office was intact, and they had to break it using an axe to gain access and put out the raging fire.
Defense lawyers David Ashioya and Wycliffe Okutta questioned how the office could have gone up in flames without security guards noticing the arsonists. ‘It was negligence on the part of the person who was supposed to ensure that CCTV cameras were functional, armed police officers were manning the premise and security lights were on...,’ Ashioya said.
