Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Monday revealed that he was saved from a 50-year jail sentence by an unnamed magistrate.
Speaking in Nyeri Maximum Security Prison where he was leading the New Year celebrations, Gachagua remarked that the previous administration made a sinister plan to steal his Ksh12.4 billion wealth and place him behind bars.
In particular, he pointed fingers at former Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti.
“Kinoti was a very notorious man but we have since forgiven him. He trumped up charges against me claiming that my Ksh12.4 billion was from criminal proceedings,” Gachagua narrated to prison inmates.
“They put a gun on the magistrate's head so that he can jail me for 50 years.”
Realising that the then Mathira Member of Parliament was being accused falsely, the magistrate decided to postpone the case, according to DP Gachagua.
Gachagua stated that since the judge perceived it was a political witchhunt, the case was postponed until after the September 2022 general election.
The Deputy President alleged that Kinoti was unable to substantiate where the Ksh12.4 billion had been stolen from.
“He said I should be jailed first so that I can appeal afterwards,” the DP stated.
Gachagua remarked that the decision to postpone the case was supported by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and investigation officers from DCI since they knew the charges were trumped up.
In November 2023, DP Rigathi Gachagua remarked that the Ksh12.4 billion case stemmed from a misinterpretation of his accrued bank balance by a corporal from the National Police Service.
“I had put some money in a microfinance bank for eight years so I was living on the interest, Ksh1.9 million,” he stated then.
“That movement back and forth, a corporal said I had Ksh800 million every year coming to my account and so they calculated it with 8 years and said I had received Ksh12.4 billion.”
