Parliament reverses ALL Money paid to EALA Games officials including their personal cash in M-pesa

“The Governments eat their own people”, these were words full of wisdom said by the then Senator James Orengo now the Governor of Siaya.

This is exactly what has happened to Games officials who officiated the EALA’s 14th Edition of the Inter-Parliamentary Games (IPG) that ended over the weekend at coastal town of Mombasa, after 12 days of fierce and exhilarating competition under the scorching weather patterns of Pwani.

The officiators who took part in athletics, Golf, Football, Tug of war, Netball, Volleyball, Basketball and Darts for PWDs had a contract with the event organisers, which is the Kenyan parliament.

The officials, the Joint Planning Committee and Bunge Sports Club had agreed on a daily payment of Kshs 11,200 for the eleven days event.

READ ALSO: ADAK CEO SENT HOME BY THE BOARD

The officials were first paid Kshs 44,800 for the first four days that they had worked on on 10/12/ 2024 at 09:21am and were again paid the remaining seven (7) days on Saturday 14/12/2024 at 08:10am, Kshs 78,400, which in both they penned a signature against payment.

Now after receiving the whole payment of money which was supposed to be Kshs 112,000 for the eleven days they had worked, the officials received a communication from one Josephine Osiba who works for the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), that they had been paid an extra day which was supposed to be refunded.

“We were shocked to receive the news that we were supposed to refund one day’s payment as they were counting nights only but not day times,” said a frustrated official who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The officials were more dismayed at the manner of how the money was reversed back from their M-pesa account without their authority.

“Why access my account without my authority, I am now stranded in the hospital discharging my patient”, said an agitated official.

Another official was caught hands down at the petrol station when he fueled his car with Kshs 7,000 worth of fuel but when he wanted to pay; he had no single cent in his M-pesa account.

“I had to call my son to send me money to pay for the fuel after being detained by the pump attends thinking I was one of those cons who run away without paying”, said the official.

“This was one of the most tormenting psychological torture I have ever under gone in my life, How can Safaricom allow reversal of my money without alerting me?”

The most intriguing thing about this reversal was, Safaricom allowed Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to reverse even their own cash money that they had in the M-pesa before being paid by parliament.

Two officials who had extra money of their own of Kshs 60,000 and the other with a Chama money that she was supposed to give to the owner was also taken by the KCB after getting instructions from Parliament.

“I wanted to buy credit of Kshs 100 and went I purchased through the M-pesa I was told to I did not have enough money in my account, upon checking my balance, I found out my account was empty including the Kshs 15,800 that belonged to the chama”, she said.

The frustrated official further explained that she, “ Tried calling Safaricom through their customer care number 100, but they never picked then I tried 234 and it was picked and I inquired why my own money has also been taken.”

The Safaricom lady directed her to call the sender who instructed the bank to reverse the paid amount that included their own personal money that they had in their accounts before being paid by the event organisers.

The big question in the room is, is our money safe with M-pesa? How could they allow this happen without consulting us?

According to the screenshot in our possession, Osiba who was in-charge of payment said that their accountant reached out to a few individuals to reverse the extra payment but they did not cooperate.

“The accountant tried to talk to a few of you to reverse thedays paid but not approved but you did not cooperate so she decided to use the bank to so, said Osiba.

According to our inside source, we have gathered from one of the Parliamentarian, who also participated in the event and who does not want to be mentioned, saying that they received their daily allowances of USD 720 (Kshs 92,880 which totals to USD 8640 (Kshs 1,021,680) for the 12 days they were in Mombasa.