Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua is once again on the receiving end from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after the sleuths finished working on a case where he is suspected of money laundering and graft.
According to a summative statement issued by DCI Director George Kinoti, the Mathira MP allegedly used 42 companies to disburse a cumulative total of Ksh12 billion.
The transactions are reported to have mostly been made at a time when Rigathi's elder brother, Nderitu Gachagua, was serving as Nyeri Governor. All the monies were then converged in a firm listed as Wamunyoro Investments Limited. This company’s directors are said to be the MP and his wife.
The Nation reported that the complete investigation had found that Rigathi's personal assistant, Julienda Jahenda Makaa, a former mobile money agent turned hairdresser, received procurement deals valued at Ksh15 million from Mathira CDF.
Makaa was reported to be a hairdresser at a salon owned by the Gachagua family. The business is located and run in Nairobi’s Buruburu estate.
She was a beneficiary to a company registered as Skytop Agencies whose bank account received the above-stated monies.
The funds were tied to a series of road construction tenders. Another firm, Machine Center Limited received a lump sum of Ksh34 million in the same regard with detectives finding that the funds were later channeled to companies where Rigathi and his wife, Pastor Dorcas Rigathi are directors or shareholders.
Machine Centre Limited obtained a total of Ksh314 million from the Ministry of Water and Sanitation for Sagana River Restoration Project, according to a DCI dossier on the case.
The above-mentioned firms among others are reportedly the base of an intricate web of transactions, including a means of illicitly accessing health tenders from both county and national government.
According to Nation, a private limited firm named Upperdeck Agencies once won a Ksh9.4 million tender to supply linen to Nyeri County hospitals. Its owners were listed as Gerald Waema Mbatha and Moses Otieno.
Detectives later discovered that when the money was paid on February 18, 2015, the entire amount was wired to Wamunyoro Investments Limited. Only a balance of Ksh5 was left.
Rigathi, who has endured the heat with the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), stated that he was aware that his arrest was looming although he denied any wrongdoing.
The MP insists he is being targeted for siding with Deputy President William Ruto and leading the UDA Kiambaa by-elections.
ARA looked into his source of wealth and without finding viable explanations moved to freeze assets. ARA was able to justify circulation of Ksh7.3 billion across the defendant’s accounts but could only hold on to Ksh5.2 billion.
“It will be malicious and devoid of merit to arrest me without evidence of crime,” Rigathi stated told the High Court in a past petition.
