Main picture: Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo. Inset: Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and his wife Dorcas Wanjiku Rigathi.
A controversial individual, who was acquitted this year over charges of impersonating a top police officer after battling in court for more than a decade, has revealed his links to a company co-owned by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s wife and son that is included in a parliamentary impeachment motion.
Mr Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo wants a Nairobi court to declare that the company had no role in the Sh5.2 billion wealth accumulation allegations at the centre of the ouster bid facing the Deputy President.
Mr Waiganjo says in his court documents that he is the majority shareholder of Morani Manufacturers Limited, which has been named in the impeachment motion moved by Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse on Tuesday, October 1.
He discloses in an affidavit to the National Assembly, which he has also filed in court, that he has 600 shares in the company that he says he registered in 2021.
Thereafter, he swears in the affidavit, that he sold 200 shares each to Mr Gachagua’s wife, Dorcas Wanjiku Rigathi and their son Keith Ikinu Rigathi. He says all this took place before Mr Gachagua became the Deputy President in September 2022.
Mr Waiganjo, while conceding that the ownership details provided in the National Assembly documents are accurate, denies that the company has ever received such an amount of money.
In the papers filed to seek the removal of his name and that of the company from the Deputy President’s impeachment proceedings, Mr Waiganjo claims that since its registration on October 13, 2021, the company has transacted only once.
The filings by lawyers Sam Nyaberi, Danstan Omari and Shadrack Wamboi claim the only business transaction he carried out was delivering 70kgs of pig feed among other supplies to farmers at the cost of Sh132,000. The payments from the delivery were made by cheque.
“I know nothing about the Sh5.2 billion associated with Morani Manufacturers Limited. I transacted once since I registered Morani Manufacturers Limited,” Mr Waiganjo says in the affidavit.
Mr Waiganjo says the Kibwezi West MP named Morani Manufacturers Limited in ground number 7 in the impeachment motion as one of the companies Mr Gachagua used to amass wealth.
His lawyers, who had also filed a suit seeking to stop the ongoing public participation, are asking to have the company expunged from the documents tabled in Parliament.
“I am one of the directors of Morani Manufacturers Limited registered under the Companies Act, 2015,” Mr Waiganjo states.
“Morani Manufacturers Limited has been included in Ground 7 of the Special Motion as one of the proxies which the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya engaged in a massive money laundering, concealment of proceeds of crime and benefited from influence peddling. The company has been specifically referenced as proxy number 16 in the said motion,” he further states.
Mr Waiganjo said he was the sole director of the company when he registered it and to date, it has a balance of Sh2,442 in its Absa Bank account.
In the affidavit, Mr Waiganjo says his company has been drawn into the impeachment saga irregularly.
He adds that Mrs Gachagua and her son have also been unfairly named in the political wrangles in the ruling coalition, and should be left out.
