Army officials in Rumbek town of South Sudan’s Lakes State are holding two senior Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) employees in connection with the loss of money.
The two senior employees have been identified as KCB Rumbek Branch Manager Michael Manyang Muorwel and KCB Rumbek Branch Operations Manager John Mabor Agang. They were arrested by military officers last Wednesday and are reportedly being held at the military barracks in Panda.
A senior KCB employee who preferred anonymity told Radio Tamazuj that the two employees are suspected to have embezzled money from the KCB Rumbek branch after an audit by the Juba’s main office. However, he did not say how much money is missing from the bank branch.
“These two senior staff were appointed in 2020 during the opening of the KCB Rumbek branch. Some of them were in Aweil, Wau, and Yei, and they were transferred to Rumbek. They are now detained for investigation,” the employee explained.
When reached for comment, Lakes State Police Spokesman Maj. Elijah Mabor Makuac said: “Yes, I heard that KCB staff were taken, but I am not sure who is handling this case.”
“On whether it should be the police or the military to investigate the case, maybe you can ask the army spokesperson. Maybe he can explain it better than me,” he added.
Reacting to the arrest of the two KCB employees, Daniel Laat Kon, a civil society activist in Lakes State, said he also received information that two KCB Rumbek Branch employees had been arrested over alleged embezzlement and are under investigation at the military barracks.
“There was an auditing team that was sent from Juba to Rumbek, and this auditing team did the audit and found that there was missing money, which is why they have been taken to Panda military detention centers. But why did the KCB management and the state government take them to Panda military barracks?” he asked.
“You know, Panda military barracks is not easy to access because I went there twice, and it is not easy to go there, especially when you are a civil society member. My message to the KCB team is that let them take the case to the police for investigation because this is a police case,” he concluded.