Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during the reopening of Treetops Hotel at Aberdare National Park on August 3, 2024.
A Sh5.2 billion empire acquired by embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in the last two years is at the heart of his impeachment.
This is against his known annual income of Sh12 million.
The impeachment motion, sponsored by Kibwezi West Member of Parliament Mwengi Mutuse, lays 11 grounds for the removal of the DP from office.
Mr Gachagua is accused of acquiring pricey assets including parcels of land, luxurious hotels, high-range apartments and a beach resort, which are suspected to have been obtained through proceeds of corruption and money laundering.
A view of Treetops Hotel inside Aberdare National Park on August 3, 2024.
“For the past two years, Gachagua has inexplicably amassed a humongous property portfolio primarily from suspected proceeds of corruption and money laundering. He has acquired the property and wealth using his spouse, two sons and other close family members and associates as proxies,” Mr Mutuse told the National Assembly.
It was reported that in November 2023, Crystal Kenya Limited, a proxy company of the DP, purchased Outspan Hotel in Nyeri County, from Aberdare Safari Hotels for Sh535 million. The directors of Crystal Kenya are the sons of the Deputy President — Kevin Gachagua and Keith Ikinu. It was still in the same month that the DP's sons acquired Treetops Lodge situated in Nyeri.
Mr Gachagua is also said to have, through his proxies, acquired Olive Gardens and Queens Gate Serviced Apartments in Nairobi. Other listed properties include Riara One Apartments along Riara Road and Lang’ata View Apartments along the Southern Bypass.
Vipingo Beach Resort
The Deputy President is also said to have spread his tentacles to the Kenyan coast and acquired Vipingo Beach Resort in Kilifi.
So good has the DP’s life been that after acquiring a parcel of land dubbed Ruguru/Kiamariga in Mathira Constituency, he constructed a helicopter landing facility for private use.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, British High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan and Treetops Hotel Managing Director Keith Ikinu cut the ribbon to mark the re-opening of Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park on August 3, 2024.
Other parcels of land reportedly acquired by the DP include 40 acres in Kakuret, Nyeri County, 80 acres in Meru County and a dairy farm in Nyandarua County.
“Additionally, his Excellency Rigathi Gachagua used his office of Deputy President to influence unscrupulous Ministry of Lands officials to issue an allotment letter to Wamunyoro Investments Limited, a company he owns, to acquire LR.209/12077 and LR 90923, situated at Embakasi in Nairobi,” the document read.
This illegally acquired land document was allegedly used to support a court case at the expense of the legitimate owner of the property, stated the document.
Also highlighted was the involvement of companies linked to the DP in the Sh3.7 billion irregular procurement of malaria nets in the 2022/23 financial year.
Further, the DP is being accused of using his office to influence unnecessary and expensive renovation of his official residence in Karen and Mombasa, running into millions of shillings.
“In essence, his Excellency Rigathi Gachagua has chosen personal comfort, extreme luxury, and pomposity at the expense of service delivery to the people,” the document stated.
Several proxy companies believed to be used to trade with the Office of the Deputy President were also listed.
Sh47 million
They include AgroBriq Investment Limited, a building and construction company that was incorporated on May 28, 2017. The company has two directors; a Kenyan of Indian descent and a non-Kenyan who operates a bank account at Sidian Bank that was opened in February 2022.
However, in October 2022, a man identified as Bhavika Nathalai Hirani was added as an account signatory and given full mandate to operate the account.
“Bhavika Nathalai Hirani is a proxy of DP Rigathi Gachagua,” Parliament was told.
It is believed on January 23, 2023, the company account received a transfer of Sh47 million from the Office of the Deputy President, Parliament heard.
The payment was supported by a proposed refurbishment of the Deputy President’s residence in Karen at a cost of Sh55.5 million. The amount was received via a payment voucher on January 10, 2023, as the first interim payment. This came after the signing of an agreement letter by Bhavika Nathalai Hirani and the Office of the Deputy President on December 22, 2022.
There was a Sh45 million transfer to a related entity identified as Vaghjiyani Enterprises Limited whose account had been dormant for around nine months before receiving the payment from the DP’s office.
The other listed company is Lusana Events Limited which has two directors and operates two bank accounts at the SBM Bank. Between January 1 and July 11, 2024, the company received Sh100.2 million from the Office of the Deputy President.
Queen Elizabeth II suite at the Treetops Hotel at Aberdare National Park on August 3, 2024.
It was the payment of Sh31.6 million to the company by Mr Gachagua’s office on July 2, 2024, made through eight different transactions that caught the attention of the legislators seeking the DP’s impeachment.
Out of this Sh100 million paid to Lusana, Sh22.8 million was withdrawn in cash and some of the amount was declared to be used to pay undisclosed beneficiaries. Another Sh4 million was transferred to a law firm and Sh26.9 million was invested in fixed-term deposits.
The third company listed is St Nicholas Rehabilitation and Industrial Training Institute Limited which was incorporated on April 8, 2021. It deals with student rehabilitation and industrial training under the name St Nicholas Rehabilitation Centre and Psychiatric Hospital. It has one director named Nicholas Mugambi Maingi who is also the company’s sole account signatory.
Sh21 million
It is believed that this company received some Sh21 million from the Office of the DP between March 1 and June 5, 2024.
These funds, Parliament heard, were utilised suspiciously where Sh2 million was used to purchase a car, a white Toyota Prado valued at Sh8.5 million, from Umarali Motors Limited.
Another Sh4 million was transferred to Nicholas Maingi’s account. Upon receipt of the funds, Mr Maingi made a transfer of Sh4.6 million to Umurali Motors Limited on March 21, 2024, raising questions about why he paid the same company using two routes.
Before the payment of these two payments from the Office of the DP, the account was operating minimal accounts, raising “suspicions that the entire transaction was a conduit used by Rigathi Gachagua to siphon public funds. The payment scheme used typifies money laundering transactions”.
“It is patently clear that there are serious reasons to believe that His Excellency Rigathi Gachagua, the Deputy President of Kenya, using his state office, has committed gross economic crime, namely conflict of interest, abuse of office, conspiracy to commit a crime and offences of money laundering,” the document stated.
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