{"id":21602,"date":"2021-01-28T20:32:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=21602"},"modified":"2021-01-28T20:32:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:32:52","slug":"mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","title":{"rendered":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (<strong>pictured<\/strong>) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports Deputy President William Ruto\u2019s presidential bid.<\/p>\n<p>In his\u00a0reply to a case filed by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) seeking orders for him to forfeit Sh202 million, Rigathi says he is the victim of a political witch hunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese proceeding are driven by mala fide (bad faith) desire to embarrass, punish and intimidate me for the stand I have publicly taken on the presidential succession in 2022; my political association and beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rigathi is a brother to the late Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagua. He once served asPresident Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s aide during his time as Kanu leader. The MP\u2019s\u00a0dalliance with Ruto played out during his mother\u2019s burial in January last year when he and his allies in Tanga Tanga used the ceremony to pledge their loyalty to the deputy president.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-article-page-desktop my-2\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1498022554617-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Through lawyer\u00a0Kioko Kilukumi, Rigathi says he can explain the source of every\u00a0coin in his three accounts at Rafiki Micro Finance Bank to the ARA.<\/p>\n<p>The agency went after him on suspicion that he was amassing illicit wealth. It claims the MP is involved in a complex money-laundering scheme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore money is laundered, it must be dirty. It must be proceeds of crime. How can monies whose source is fully documented in the government records for work contracted and done be reasonably suspected to be dirty so as to require laundering?\u201d reads his response filed in court yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the ARA, Rigathi\u2019s three accounts conducted a series of suspicious debit transactions amounting to Sh7.3 billion and a total credit of Sh12.5 billion between 2013 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The agency claims the MP and his business associate, Anne Kimemia, trading as Jenne Enterprises Ltd, cannot explain how they acquired the Sh202 million thus it should be forfeited to the State.<\/p>\n<p>The flagged accounts have Sh165 million, Sh35 million and Sh773,228. A fourth account belonging to Jenne Enterprises has Sh1.1 million.<\/p>\n<p>Rigathi argues that apart from being an MP, he is\u00a0also\u00a0a businessman. \u201cI have invested in several corporate entities in which I also serve as a director,\u201d he claims, adding that his companies have \u2018developed business relationships\u2019 with other companies such that they tend to borrow loans from each other to complete projects.<\/p>\n<p>He has also disowned Ms Kimemia, arguing that he does not know about her dealings and cannot vouch on whether she does clean business or not.\u00a0The case will be heard in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AfricaPress-Kenya: Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports Deputy President William Ruto\u2019s presidential bid. In his\u00a0reply to a case filed by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) seeking orders for him to forfeit Sh202 million, Rigathi says he is the victim of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[2059,136,312],"class_list":["post-21602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-rigathi-gachagua","tag-uhuru-kenyatta","tag-william-ruto"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"574\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\"},\"wordCount\":429,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rigathi Gachagua\",\"Uhuru Kenyatta\",\"William Ruto\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\",\"name\":\"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m - kenya\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":574},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/\",\"name\":\"kenya\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m - kenya","description":"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m","og_description":"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","og_site_name":"kenya","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":574,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m","datePublished":"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m"},"wordCount":429,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg","keywords":["Rigathi Gachagua","Uhuru Kenyatta","William Ruto"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m","name":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m - kenya","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-28T20:32:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua (pictured) now claims he is being pursued over alleged illicit wealth because he supports","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/01\/mp_claims_witch_hunt6011c8f861f37.jpg","width":800,"height":574},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/mp-claims-witch-hunt-in-case-over-sh200m#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MP claims witch hunt in case over Sh200m"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/","name":"kenya","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}