Interior Ministry diverted Sh1 billion to fund Jubilee campaigns, claims Rigathi Gachagua
Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua
By Charles Muriithi
Worth Noting:
- “I was once the personal assistant to the Head of Civil Service then Prof Phillip Mbithi and have the knowledge that there is a confidential fund ostensibly for security purposes running into billions and can, and has been recently abused by the current AIE holder whose recent brief seems to be receiving defectors”, fumed Gachagua who was also at one time Uhuru Kenyatta Personal Assistant when he was Official opposition leader.
- Gachagua claimed that some government operatives were offering UDA aspirants between Sh50 million and Sh70 million to ditch the party headed by Deputy President Dr William Ruto.
Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua has sensationally claimed that Sh1billion was recently withdrawn from a confidential account of the Interior Ministry for political purposes.
Gachagua insisted that he had impeccable information that the money was withdrawn from a bank located at the NHIF building at the Community area, Nairobi and was used to bribe aspirants to defect from other parties to the ruling Jubilee party that has hitherto had its fortunes nosediving.
The vocal MP made the claims yesterday morning at KTN News talk show where he was one of the panelists alongside his Rangwe counterpart Otiende Amollo, Kericho Senator Aron Cheruiyot and Kitutu Chache legislator Richard Onyonka.
The discussions mainly centred on party primaries and the alleged plot to impeach the president by his deputy over four years ago.
Amollo pressed Gachagua to substantiate the claim of the huge withdrawal and subsequent use of the same to bribe aspirants particularly from the Mt. Kenya region.
In his answer, the Nyeri County lawmaker whose home is barely 200 metres away from Sagana Stage Lodge where the president has held three meetings dubbed Sagana I, Sagana II and Sagana III to woo the region’s residents stood firm saying he was not a gossiper or rumourmonger but an advocate of the truth.
“I was once the personal assistant to the Head of Civil Service then Prof Phillip Mbithi and have the knowledge that there is a confidential fund ostensibly for security purposes running into billions and can, and has been recently abused by the current AIE holder whose recent brief seems to be receiving defectors”, fumed Gachagua who was also at one time Uhuru Kenyatta Personal Assistant when he was Official opposition leader.
Gachagua claimed that some government operatives were offering UDA aspirants between Sh50 million and Sh70 million to ditch the party headed by Deputy President Dr William Ruto.
On the alleged plot to impeach the president, Amollo said that he was well briefed by Wachira Kiago who is the Kikuyu Council of Elders who was one the leaders of the delegation that met the president in State House, Nairobi last Saturday adding that he felt the information was highly credible.
In his response to Amollo’s assertion, Gachagua, said, “Kiago is a self-imposed leader without mandate to speak for anybody. In any case, Gikuyu elders’ mandate is purely cultural and has nothing to do with politics”.
On his part, Cheruiyot observed the on the reverse, the Deputy President was at risk of being impeached after the handshake wondering how anybody in his right senses would plan to impeach his boss whom he had just assisted recapture power twice after only two months.
On nominations, the Kericho Senator said all major parties should embrace negotiated democracy in party primaries as a credible nomination process would cost upwards of Sh700 million.
“Most political parties in Kenya have followers but not members and do not therefore contribute in anyway to the party coffers,” noted Cheruiyot adding that concensus should be encouraged in battleground areas where open nominations may attract members and followers of other parties and and up with weak candidates.
Onyonka said that efforts should be made to ensure that nominations are not a do or die affair as as most party honchos are to abuse the process to the detriment of aspirants and the electorate.
During the same show, Gachagua further claimed that two Cabinet Secretaries with roots in Nyeri had summoned contractors at the Safari Park hotel, Nairobi to raise campaign funds for the ruling party but the exercise became a cropper.
Though he did not name the two ministers, the only two from Nyeri are Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru who were unavailable for comment.
According to the Mathira lawmaker whose elder brother, the late Nderitu Gachagua was the first Nyeri governor, the contactors insisted that they could not raise any funds as they had not been paid for work done for quite a while.
All the lawmakers on the panel were however in agreement that credible nominations were a key determinant in a free, fair and verifiable General Election acceptable to both winners and losers at all levels from the MCA to President.
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