Senator Jackson Mandago is suspected of preparing to embezzle approximately eight million euros from Kenyan youth studying in Finland and Canada.
A Kenyan court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for the former governor and current senator of Uasin Gishu province Jackson from Mandago.
According to the arrest document, Governor Mandago and three officials have prepared to embezzle up to one billion shillings, or about eight million euros, from Kenyan youth studying in Finland and Canada and their families.
According to the prosecutor’s evidence, officials working under Governor Mandago stole more than 500,000 euros from an account set up for tuition fees during the years 2021-22.
More than 200 students from Uasin Gishu province have gone to Finnish vocational schools and universities of applied sciences in the last two years, and the same number are still waiting to enter Finland in Kenya.
Frustrated parents in Uasin Gishu’s capital, Eldoret, have staged protests in recent weeks. Their children have not been able to go to Finland, even though the first year’s tuition fees, plane tickets and visas have been paid.
According to the indictment, Governor Jackson Mandago has negotiated contract education contracts with Finnish educational institutions without the authorization of the provincial parliament.
Mandago has also lied to Finnish educational institutions that the students’ tuition fees would be paid with the province’s full scholarship. In fact, the students and their families have paid all the expenses themselves.
Kenyan police have not been able to reach Senator Mandago and are now appealing to the public for clues as to his whereabouts.