MP Rigathi Gachagua Spends Weekend at Gigiri Police Station

Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua is set to be arraigned in court on Monday following his arrest on Friday.

Gachagua will reportedly answer charges of money laundering, corruption, and abuse of office, among others.

On Sunday, the first-time MP will spend a third night at Gigiri Police Station where he was booked after hours of interrogation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) detectives.

He was picked from his Nyeri home at around 6:00 am on Friday and driven to DCI headquarters for questioning over an alleged Sh12.5 billion scandal.
 
Detectives have been investigating the source of Sh12.5 billion wired into Gachagua’s bank accounts between 2013 and 2020.

He is alleged to have used proxies to fraudulently win tenders in various county government, State agencies, and ministries through 22 companies, with him as the sole beneficiary. Gachagua is said to have received the funds through three accounts in Rafiki Micro Finance Bank. 

The funds were received from the Ministry of Lands (Kenya Informal Settlements Program), State Department for Special Planning, Ministry of Health, Bungoma County government, Mathira Constituency Development Fund, Nyeri County government, and the National Irrigation Board and are suspected to be proceeds of crime.

Gachagua claims his arrest is politically instigated because of his support for Deputy President William Ruto.

“I want to tell the people of Mathira to ignore the rumors, their MP has not stolen anything, these are just baseless accusations to intimidate me for my political standing,” he said following his arrest.