The six charges levelled against Mathira MP Hon Rigathi Gachagua on Monday, after years of Director of Criminal Investigations hyping the case are a travesty of law enforcement. It not any wonder the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) did not even care to oppose his application for bail. Here are the six(6) charges pressed against Hon Rigathi Gachagua and why the MP has no case to answer:-
Count 1: Hon Gachagua is accused of conspiracy to commit an offense of corruption. The allegation is that between May 2015 and December 2016, the MP and the 9 others conspired at a “unknown place in Republic of Kenya” to defraud County of Nyeri Ksh. 27, 493, 860. The witnesses against the MP are not stated. The basis for alleging that the MP conspired to defraud Ksh. 27 Million is not disclosed. Whether the MP was successful in defrauding the said money is not clear.
Count 2: It is alleged that on 29th December 2014, Hon Rigathi Gachagua and Rapid Medical Supplies Ltd in Nairobi acquired Ksh. 6 Million being part payment for delivery of Dialysis Machines to Nyeri Provincial General Hospital. On what basis the MP acquired the money, whether he is director of the company, whether the money alleged to have been acquired was Ministry of Health or Nyeri County money (which would amount to conflict of interest as the MP’s brother was the Governor), is also not stated. The MP is on record stating he has never done any business with Nyeri County.
Count 3: Hon Rigathi Gachagua is alleged to have “indirectly” received Ksh. 104,821,205 from Bungoma County Government between January 2015 and June 2019. The account(s) in which the MP received this colossal amount and the specific dates are not disclosed. The persons who paid the MP these moneys, who should be his co-accused, are not indicated. What the payments had been purported to be for, is not availed. The Bungoma County officials involved in this money laundering are not listed as co-accused or as witnesses. The charge is simply a good example of how not to frame a money laundering case.
Count 4: It is an allegation that Hon Rigathi Gachagua, with others not charged, between September 2015 and September 2016, not on specific dates, with intent to unlawfully dispose monies received from Kwale County Government, “indirectly” received ksh. 7,583,505.85. The charge sheet does not disclose from whom the MP received this money, in which account, on which date, and how they established he knew he was receiving money from Kwale County Government if the money come “indirectly” to him.
Count 5: It is an unsubstantiated allegation that between 2013 and 2020, Hon Rigathi Gachagua received Ksh. 7.3 Billion through three Bank Accounts held in Rafiki Microfinance for which is he is both holder and signatory. At best, this is merely fishing expedition as one would have expected details of where the money was received from and where it ended and how police concluded that it was money laundering.
Count 6: This last is the most laughable of the charges levelled against the MP. It claims the MP awarded a contract to “Skytop Agencies, a company owned by Julliane Jahenda Makaa, who is your close associate.” How the prosecutor will prove the “close association” between Ms. Makaa and Hon Gachagua is not clear, why Ms. Makaa and the Mathira CDF Board that awarded her the tender are not charged alongside Hon. Gachagua, as happens in the case in cases of conflict of interest, is not indicated.
As a matter of law, the CDF Board is a statutory organ distinct from the MP and has its own Manager. Unless it can be proven that the MP benefited from the money paid to Ms. Makaa or the MP acted through Ms. Makaa, there is no case for conflict of interest against the MP Rigathi Gachagua. It is not even indicated whether any payment was made, for how much and the money trail thereof.
One wonders, since Rigathi was once President Uhuru’s close associate, is DCI by extension suggesting that the President should answer for tenders awarded to him by Government? Why was the President not called to answer when his close associates including David Murathe and his relatives were accused of being awarded KEMSA tenders worth Billions?