A man who was quietly installed to steady Busia County’s finances after a massive tender fraud scandal is now being accused of operating at the very centre of efforts to shield the governor’s interests and conceal sensitive financial dealings from public view.
Ahmed Adan Hefow, the Chief Officer for Accounting Services, has emerged in fresh insider claims as the figure entrusted with handling some of Governor Paul Otuoma’s most delicate money matters, including arrangements that allegedly keep certain property interests away from scrutiny through associates and proxies.
The allegations land at a time when Busia’s finance department is still carrying the stain of one of the largest documented graft cases in the county’s recent years.
In August 2025, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission arrested six senior officials, including the then Chief Officer for Finance, ICT and Economic Planning, Gypson Ojiambo Wafula.
The arrests centred on the irregular award of tenders worth 1.4 billion shillings to 26 proxy companies during the 2022/2023 to 2024/2025 financial years. Investigators established that significant sums, including over 90 million shillings paid to entities such as Baya Farmcare Limited, Leokiz Investment Limited and Multidose Agro Supplies Limited, went to companies allegedly linked to relatives and associates of senior county officials, including those connected to the governor’s circle.
Governor Otuoma himself was later summoned to record a statement at the EACC’s Bungoma offices in February 2026 as a person of interest in the same investigation. The scandal exposed a system in which public tenders were allegedly channelled through fronts, allowing connected individuals to benefit while the county’s official records told a different story. Wafula’s suspension and compulsory leave were presented to the public as a necessary step to restore order and accountability in the finance docket.
Instead of a clean break, the county placed Ahmed Adan Hefow in the critical accounting position. Hefow, who had earlier political ambitions in Wajir, took charge of the very systems that track payments, approve expenditures and maintain the official ledgers. Insiders now claim this was never about reform. They describe Hefow as one of the most important figures in the current financial structure, a man allegedly tasked with managing transactions that do not appear in the ordinary public record and with playing a role in arrangements that protect property interests linked to the governor through third parties.
If these claims are accurate, they point to something far more serious than a simple change of personnel. The accounting office sits at the heart of every financial decision in the county. It controls the paper trail, the payment approvals and the records that auditors and investigators must rely on. Placing a figure accused of handling the governor’s hidden dealings in that office raises the possibility that the same mechanisms used to obscure the 1.4 billion shilling tender scheme have simply been handed to a new operator who enjoys the governor’s confidence.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. A finance chief is arrested over proxy tenders that allegedly benefited politically connected individuals. Public pressure mounts. A replacement is installed under the banner of cleaning house. Within months, fresh allegations surface that the new man is even more central to protecting the governor’s private interests and keeping certain financial flows away from view. What was sold as accountability begins to look like a careful reshuffle designed to keep the core network intact and the most sensitive operations in trusted hands.
Busia residents have every reason to be alarmed. County money is not abstract. It is meant for roads, hospitals, water projects and revenue collection that directly affect daily life. When the people controlling the books are accused of facilitating concealment rather than transparency, the public loses twice. Funds that should improve services disappear into arrangements that are difficult to trace, while those asking questions are left chasing records that may have been deliberately structured to mislead.
The allegations against Hefow are not isolated gossip. They come from within the same county administration that has already seen its finance leadership dismantled by EACC action. They fit into a longer pattern of questions over procurement, hiring and the use of public office under the current governor. Previous leaks from inside Busia spoke of jobs being allocated through networks rather than merit, and of a working culture in which vulnerable people seeking employment allegedly faced inappropriate demands. Taken together with the claims now circulating about Hefow’s role, they paint a picture of a county government where loyalty to powerful interests appears to matter more than fidelity to public duty.
Hefow’s position gives him extraordinary access. As the official responsible for accounting services, he sits close to every major payment and every adjustment in the county’s financial records. If he is indeed the person managing the governor’s most sensitive dealings and helping to keep certain property interests obscured, then the very office that should be the guardian of public resources has allegedly become an instrument for protecting private ones.
These are serious accusations that demand more than denials or silence. The EACC, the Auditor General and the Controller of Budget must examine Hefow’s conduct since he assumed the accounting role. They must scrutinise transactions processed under his watch, cross-check any proxies or associates linked to him against the earlier tender beneficiaries, and establish whether the systems he oversees have been used to continue the very practices that led to Wafula’s arrest. Governor Otuoma must also account for why a man now accused of shielding his interests was placed in such a sensitive position immediately after a major scandal.
Busia cannot afford another cycle where scandal is followed by superficial change and the same networks simply adapt. The people of the county deserve to know whether their money is being managed in their interest or whether the finance department has become a sophisticated tool for those who understand how to move funds and hide trails while the public sees only the official version of events. The allegations against Adan Hefow strike at the heart of that question. They deserve a full, fearless and public response.
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