NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 30- The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has revealed how Mathira Member of Parliament (MP) Rigathi Gachagua acquired tender deals worth millions of shillings from the government.
This comes after the ruling by High Court Judge Esther Maina on Friday directed Gachagua to forfeit Sh200 million to the state which he acquired from Government agencies through deals.
In a statement on Saturday, the DCI exposed that the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Deputy Presidential Candidate alongside his two trusted female associates approached youth and women and lured them into registering companies and opening accounts with a local financial institution.
According to the DCI, the MP would then use his influence and blackmail to secure tenders for those companies and obtain over Sh1.7 billion from government agencies through Rafiki micro-finance.
“Using proxies who had registered over 20 companies, Rigathi obtained over Sh 1.7 billion from close to 10 government ministries, state departments, parastatals and county governments paid through Rafiki micro-finance. The MP and two of his trusted female associates approached youths and women to register companies and open accounts at Rafiki micro-finance, then used his influence and blackmail to secure tenders for the companies,” the DCI said.
The substitute accounts were however being managed by one of Gachagua’s trusted confidants and personal assistant Julianne Jahenda at the micro-finance institution.
The detectives further explained that in a well-executed plan, the youths would receive loans and be assisted to supply the required goods which unbelievably were substandard leading to heavy losses in different sectors of the government mainly the health sector.
“In one such deal in 2014, a county based in central Kenya received medical equipment worth Sh27.4 million shillings for supply of dialysis machines and a water treatment plant. The tender for supply of the equipment was awarded to 13 companies all allied to Rigathi,” the DCI noted.
In yet another ordeal, the DCI showed “At the South Coast, a hospital received an incinerator worth Ksh 12.7 million supplied by one of Rigathi’s associates in 2014. The incinerator has never been put to use since it was a faulty junk, yet the county government had paid Sh10 million for it,”
The Kinoti led agency further revealed that once payments were done, his signatory Jahenda would immediately transfer the funds to his accounts, leaving the women and youth groups servicing loans incurred to deliver the faulty supplies.
“The seasoned sleuths also established that there were funds going into Rigathi’s accounts from loans and inter-company transfers, indicating that he was the ultimate beneficiary of the funds received from the counties,” added the statement.
Further investigations showed that Jahenda who operated an Mpesa shop in the city’s Eastlands suburbs prior to being recruited as Gachagua’s Personal Assistant and associate had received over Sh254 Million which they could not account for.
The DCI said that these unscrupulous deals are the cause of the freezing of the Sh201,911,371 belonging to the Kenya Kwanza member by the Assets Recovery Agency.
