Former Kiambu Governor Waititu was put to task to explain his source of wealth before Court as the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) sought to reclaim his Ksh1.9 billion wealth, believed to be proceeds of crime.
In his defence, the ousted governor told the Court that he is worth more than what EACC is claiming, terming the the move as "judicial persecution."
According to Waititu, he bought his first lorry after four years of serving as an accountant in the Ministry of Finance in 1990 and began supplying building materials with his wife Susan Wangari.
The politician who quit the job in 1993 had 10 lorries in 1998, and won contracts worth millions of shillings with Nairobi City Council (Current Nairobi County) for collection until 2011.
Waititu claims he decided to register several companies between 1999 and 2011 including Dosoil Enterprises, Ndung’u Waititu Ltd, Bulk Refuse Removal, Bins Management Ltd and Saika Two Estate Developers which he used to acquire other properties.
“In 2011, we acquired 22 acres which we subdivided into 311 plots and sold. I had a lot of wealth even before I was elected Kabete MP, including petrol stations, hardware and beauty shops, landed properties and several fleets of transportation lorries,” Waititu explained.
He constructed two petrol stations in Njiru shopping centre and Kayole Junction while his wife opened a hardware shop and a beauty shop for wholesale products.
While serving as Kiambu governor, Waititu says he continued with his businesses together with the wife which collected over Ksh300 million every month.
After two years of serving as Kiambu governor, he had acquired two property at a cumulative cost of Ksh580 million which include a building in which one local bank is located and Delta Hotel in Nairobi's CBD in 2017 and 2018 respectively, through loans supplemented by his savings.
“I can give sufficient explanation to all my properties acquired during the period I was an MP and governor. The EACC was just in a hurry to file the suit without giving me a chance to explain myself.”
Other property owned by ex-governor are Solar House in Nairobi CBD, a building along Biashara street, a house in Runda estate, seven vehicles and a tractor, cash in bank accounts and several pieces of land in Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado counties.
According to EACC, Waititu embezzled funds through fictitious and fraudulent procurement contracts where he concealed his private interests in tenders awarded to companies contracted to offer services to the county government.
The Twalib Mbarak-led agency claims that the only legitimate wealth for the period he served as MP and governor amounted to Ksh160 million which includes salary at Ksh29.5 million, rental income - Ksh81 million and bank loans totaling Ksh44 million.
"Investigations established that Ferdinand Ndugu Waititu Babayao abused his position of trust as a Member of Parliament – Kabete Constituency and later as Governor – Kiambu County, for private gain by engaging in transactions which were in conflict with the public interest and amassed wealth that was disproportionate to his known legitimate sources of income,” EACC stated.
Waititu recently lost UDA primaries in a bid to take another stab at Kiambu gubernatorial seat in the August 9 polls.
