Wazir Benson Masubo Chacha, the alleged extortionist who orchestrated a scheme that saw several lawmakers lose large sums of cash, has garnered national attention and dominated public discourse since his alleged antics were revealed.
Unknown to many, Chacha is the son of former Kehancha Mayor Chacha Masubo and is a former Devolution Ministry employee.
Reports indicate that Chacha spent some time at his sister's house in Kehancha near Kisii before crossing the border after police launched a manhunt for him.
The 25-year old has previously claimed to have both Kenyan and Tanzanian citizenship.
“I have both Kenyan and Tanzanian identification documents. The Kenyan one reads Benson Wazir Masubo and while the Tanzanian ID indicates my name as Wazir Chacha Masubo,” he told Nairobian in a past interview.
He is also linked to the massive National Youth Service (NYS) corruption scandal in which public funds were looted, and received a letter from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) asking him not to move any of his assets out of Kenya as he was being looked into.
A letter addressed to Chacha from the body read in part: “This is freezing order made against you on 22/11/2015 by the Recovery Assets Authority at hearing without notice to you after the agency was given the undertakings...You must not remove from Kenya in any way or dispose of, deal with or diminish the value of any of your assets in Kenya up to the unencumbered value of one Kenya shilling”.
The listed properties included a Toyota Land Cruiser V8, Toyota Lexus and Chrysler 1540, ten prime plots in Nairobi, apartment in Nairobi, club and hotel in Nairobi, resort in Mombasa, fashion house and an executive mansion in Nairobi.
A quick look at his Instagram page, in which he goes by the name El Chapo Junior, reveals that he shared a poster touting his bid to become Westlands MP in the 2017 General Election.
It was former Bomet Woman Representative Cecilia Ng'etich who drew attention to Chacha's involvement in the scam after intimate images surfaced online of them in bed.
She further claimed that Chacha lived in Buruburu and not Runda as he claimed.
“He is using Waziri Chacha but his ID reads Benson Waziri Masubo. He is not Kenyan and does not live in Runda, but Buruburu with relatives,” she noted.
The young man shot to infamy after Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Chief George Kinoti, in the early days of an investigation into a scam targeting MPs, reportedly stated that the suspect identified as Wazir Chacha had 'a special relationship' with Murang'a Woman Representative Sabina Chege.
[caption caption="Sabina Chege"]
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Sabina dismissed the link telling Kenyans.co.ke: "I am not related to the man in question. Kinoti said that the accused has a special relationship with the complainant but I am not the only complainant...The man is not a member of my community and we have no relationship whatsoever."
It later emerged, however, that Chacha had registered a number of mobile money accounts in Chege's name, which he used to reach out to other legislators asking for money.
Former Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo is among those who fell victim to the scheme and sent money to Chege on at least one occasion.
In a radio interview with Hot 96 on Wednesday, Chege explained that Chacha was flirting with Midiwo who thought it was the Woman Rep all along.
Other reports indicated that Chacha had gotten close to several female lawmakers in the house, and it was alleged that he had video evidence of their escapades which he used to blackmail them.
Sabina dared the suspect to release the videos if indeed they existed stating: “With the kind of relationship we are talking about if Chacha had videos, he would have released them.”
In one of the messages Chacha used to get funds from the MPs, they were informed that Chege had cancer and required Ksh6 Million for treatment in Australia.
He was arrested in Tarime, Tanzania by detectives who had been tracking his movements for three days.
Police told Nation that he sent screenshots of Whatsapp conversations with female MPs along with pictures and videos to various bloggers.
“The conversations indicate that he had been communicating with several of them, and he even travelled with some of them to South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Dubai,” an officer stated.
[caption caption="Wazir Chacha "]
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