COVID-19 Scandal in Somalia: Four Arrested

Kenyans seem to have borrowed and are now staging an encounter plan against COVID-19 scandal suspect following the arrest of 4 senior Health Ministry officials in Somalia.

The Director-General (DG) of Somalia at the Health Ministry Abdullahi Hashi Ali was yesterday August 24, 2020, arrested and sentenced to jail alongside other three health officials after being found guilty of embezzling COVID-19 funds.

 The Banadir Regional Court, which covers crimes committed in the capital Mogadishu and surrounding locations, found the four guilty with regard to a case that drew the general public’s scrutiny in the use of the funds.

The case arose in April, a month after Somalia reported its first case of Covid-19. At that time, the Ministry of Health revealed that a number of officials were under investigation for stealing money meant to help the country in fighting the pandemic.

Court documents released on Monday did not indicate how much each of them stole but the Ministry of Health said in April that between $42,000 and $45,000 had been spent in unclear circumstances.

A written verdict read by the chief judge of the regions stated clearly that the court found the officials guilty of committing graft related acts and sentenced them, to different terms as well as imposed varying fines according to charge weight.

 “The court sentenced Abdullahi Hashi Ali, the director-general of the Ministry of Health, to nine years of prison ordering him to pay a fine of about $2, 366,” the judge announced. Subsequently, the judge announced that Mohamoud Bulle Mohamoud, the ministry’s director of administration, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison with an equally fine

The third convict was Mahdi Abshir Mohamed, the head of a project called Wacyigelinta Caafimaadka of health awareness was sentenced to 12 years in jail and will pay a fine of the same amount. The fourth convict, Bashir Abdi Nur who heads the ministry’s malaria and HIV/AIDS department, was sentenced to three years in prison and asked to pay a fine of $1,183.

The country allocated some $5 million to an emergency kitty for Covid but requested for more from the donors.

The Federal Minister for Health, Dr Fawzia Abikar Nur, told the media there would be a thorough audit on the use of COVID-19 funds.