Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua has been arrested over Sh 12b corruption allegations and immediately blamed it on the Jubilee Party’s loss in the Kiambaa by-election held last week.
In a statement issued after the early morning arrest at his Mathira home, the embattled MP who was ejected out of Karatina town the previous evening by angry residents said Jubilee was bitter for the loss.
“I appreciate their bitterness with the loss of the Kiambaa by-election,” said Gachagua, adding that he played a minimal role and that he had no vote.
Detectives have been piecing together details of how Gachagua registered 49 companies which he used to trade with various government agencies in an intricate web that saw him win tenders worth more than Sh12 billion.
In what detectives now claim to be “a well-knit complex scheme of money laundering”, Gachagua opened at least 33 bank accounts through which payments were made and sometimes money hastily withdrawn.
Some of the companies that received hundreds of millions of shillings from the government, were either owned by Gachagua himself and his family members, his close friends and relatives or proxies.
After his arrest today, Gachagua who claimed his arrest was politically motivated said Kiambaa by-election was just a tip of the iceberg and that the “handshake state” faces a humiliating defeat in 2022.
He said he was being driven to Nairobi at reckless speed to spend the weekend in the cells.
“I am happy it is finally over. It has been two years of hell; being arrested and released, writing countless statements, being prosecuted in the media, intimidation and harassment to me and my family,” said Gachagua.
He said his support for the Deputy President William Ruto remains steadfast.
He said he now has a chance to be vindicated in a court of law as the courts are independent, warning his so-called “tormentors and persecutors” that they have only one year remaining.
He said Kenya will have a new democratic Government that does not use the criminal justice system to manage politics.
