What next for Uhuru aide after return to politics 12 years later?

The appointment of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s aide David Murathe as vice chairman of the Jubilee Alliance Party marks the return of the former Gatanga MP into frontline politics after a decade of backroom mobilisation.

Mr Murathe is spearheading efforts to merge TNA and Deputy President William Ruto’s URP ahead of the 2017 elections. 

After losing his seat in the 2002 election and filing for receiving orders under the Bankruptcy Act in 2005, the former MP’s political life has been quiet. The re-entry of Mr Murathe into mainstream party politics has stirred interest on his ambitions for political office.

Mr Murathe was elected to Parliament on the Social Democratic Party in 1997. Over the years, he has built a close relationship with Mr Kenyatta since the latter’s entry into politics in the mid-1990s.

RESIGNATION LETTER

His tenure in Parliament was never short of drama. One of the most memorable moments was in  April 1998 when then Speaker of the National Assembly Francis ole Kaparo received a letter purportedly conveying the resignation of Gatanga MP.

The letter, according to the National Assembly Hansard of April 7, 1998, bore the MP’s signature and another signature and rubber stamp of a lawyer.

“The fact of the matter is this: I have a letter purportedly written by a member to resign. I also have a letter by that member saying he did not resign and that the letter is a forgery,” Mr Kaparo told Parliament.

He added: “The simplest thing to do in this saga, is to hand over the letters to arms of the government capable of verifying the truth or otherwise of the signature. If there is any forgery, then the necessary legal action should follow.”

Mr Murathe was alleged to have been paid Sh10 million by the Royal Media Services chairman SK Macharia to resign and pave way for him to contest the Gatanga seat.

Mr Kaparo in his ruling said he considered the resignation letter authentic. However, he decided not to declare the seat vacant but left everything to Mr Murathe’s conscience.

Without any political clout after his parliamentary tenure ended in 2002, Mr Murathe found the going tough after debtors started closing in on him and threatening to auction his assets.

RECEIVING ORDERS

On June 13, 2005, he filed a suit in the High Court seeking receiving orders under the Bankruptcy Act for his inability to pay debts totalling Sh50 million.

“I was a Member of Parliament between 1997 and 2001 and at the moment, I have no source of income to enable me pay my debts,” Mr Murathe told the court in 2005.

Subsequently, the court appointed Ms Lucy Ndung’u of the State Law Office as the official receiver of his estate and published the information in the Kenya Gazette of August 12, 2006. Mrs Ndung’u is now the acting Registrar of Political Parties.

The debt was largely from money borrowed by Kenya Business Machines Ltd, where Mr Murathe was a director, but the business was unable to repay the money.

The institutions named in court as demanding money from Mr Murathe were NIC Bank, Cooperative Bank, Equity Bank, Prudential Bank (now under receivership) and the troubled Kenya Planters Cooperative Union. 

With the dubious debtor status hanging over his head like the Sword of Damocles, Mr Murathe returned to court in 2008 and lodged a fresh application before Justice Luka Kimaru, swearing he had been misadvised “to file for the bankruptcy petition as it would have been easier to approach the creditors directly and negotiate the debts”. 

His application was allowed and on April 4, 2008, Justice Kimaru overturned the receiving orders saying the creditors were now at liberty to pursue Mr Murathe for their debts.

On Saturday, Mr Murathe clarified that he only applied for receiving orders under the Bankruptcy Act, but these were eventually lifted.

“I had filed for this because I was being harassed left right and centre by financiers of Kenya Business Machines, a company which I had guaranteed. I have never been adjudged bankrupt. How have I been doing my businesses if I were bankrupt?” he said.

Additional reporting by Justus Wanga