Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua arrested by police.
Detectives arrested Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua.
Mr Gachagua was arrested at his home in Sagana in Nyeri County.
The MP said detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) raided his home early Friday morning.
“As expected, a dozen DCI officers raided my house in Nyeri and arrested me on charges of money laundering. I am being driven to Nairobi at high speed on weekends. ” The MP said on his social media page, ” Ending in cells.”
Last month, investigators said they had completed an investigation into tenders involving companies related to Mr Gachagua, and put MPs in trouble for more than 12 billion shillings believed to have passed through his accounts.
The number of companies involved in the MP’s activities, as well as those of his agents, has now reached 40, revealing what appears to be a complex transfer network.
Most transfers end up in a company known as Wamunyoro Investments Limited, of which Mr. Gachagua and his wife, Rev. Dorcas Wanjiku, are the sole shareholders.
“We have completed this investigation and it has taken us a long time,” said Director of Criminal Investigation George Kinoti, without disclosing his next decision.
Eight months ago, detectives from the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations questioned the MP on allegations of corruption and money laundering and then released him free of charge.
In their final report, investigators allege that Mr Gachagua used the company and its agents fraudulently to obtain medical offers from the county and the national government.
For example, when a company known as Upperdeck Agencies won a bid of 9.4 million shillings to supply linen to Nyeri County hospitals, its owners were listed on bank documents, as Gerald Waema Mbatha and Moses Otieno.
When the money was paid on February 18, 2015, all the money was transferred to Wamunyoro Investments Limited, with only Sh5 left remaining,Investigating officers later found out.
Agent companies
They also found that the listed owners were not signed into a bank account.
The only signator was Mr. Sammy Cheborgey, an employee of the State Development Fund of the State Government of Mathira State (NG-CDF). But documents from the Kenya Revenue Authority indicate that Mr Gachagua has ties to the company.
The whole project seems to have started when Mr Gachagua’s older brother, James Nderitu, who died in 2017, was governor of Nyeri County.
The family apparently used other companies – through representatives – to do business with the county.
“The accounts held in the Friend taking the Minor Deposit Funds were used to obtain loans (and) these loans were used to finance the funds received from the ministry or the transfer of the company for the purpose of concealing the final recipient of the funds,” states the final investigative report.
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