If they had listened to me, we would not be in this mess, says ex-MP
Former KPCU director and Gatundu North MP Mr Patrick Kariuki Muiruri. PHOTO | JENNIFER MUIRURI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
I wish I had stayed for long, but I was fighting a very strong system led by Abraham Mwangi.
There was this time that Wilfred Koinange went to the office and told the Coffee Board that they would have to borrow Sh600 million from a foreign bank.
KPCU was forced to pay hundreds of millions for a loan it never received.
Patrick Kariuki Muiruri, a former Gatundu North MP, was one of the few KPCU directors who stood against the looters.
Although he was kicked out, he still thinks it can still be revived. He spoke to John Kamau
You took the KPCU board to court when you were still a member. What was happening?
They wanted to defraud the organisation. I could not stand the continued stealing of farmers’ money. That is why I filed the case. The purchase of computers worth millions of shillings was stopped by the court. I wish I had stayed for long, but I was fighting a very strong system led by Abraham Mwangi. I was the only director who could openly challenge him.
Is that why you left KPCU?
I was thrown out after Mwangi engineered the holding of an extraordinary meeting in June 1997, whose agenda was to remove me. I was accused of having interests in Thika Coffee Mills, though everyone knows I don’t even own a share. When Thika Coffee Mills was being opened, I was asked by the KPCU to represent it. I was thrown out with Kinyua Mbui (he became Ndia MP).
What did you witness in KPCU and the Coffee Board?
There was this time that Wilfred Koinange went to the office and told the Coffee Board that they would have to borrow Sh600 million from a foreign bank. I asked: “Bwana PS, why are we borrowing in foreign exchange and we are not indebted?” That is the time Mwangi turned to me and said: “Don’t you know what is a directive?” Koinange told the General Manager, a Mr Katingima, that by 12 noon, he wanted a board resolution. And because he was a government appointee, he agreed. The money was borrowed and that was the last we heard about it. But farmers had to later repay it.
There was the other controversial 1992 Coffee Board loan for farmers . . .
What farmers? If you get any one farmer who was paid - bring him to me. And yet, KPCU was forced to pay hundreds of millions for a loan it never received.
You were the lonely voice against coffee cartels?
If the government had listened to me, we would not be in this mess.
A country that once produced 130,000 tonnes of coffee is now at slightly above 40,000 tonnes.
After I was kicked out of KPCU, I was elected to Parliament and waged a campaign against the cartels, but they always won.
