Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has threatened to name top officials in retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government who allegedly looted at least Sh24 billion from the National Treasury.
He said those at the centre of the looting spree were cabinet and principal secretaries.
Speaking during a church service in Nairobi yesterday, the former Mathira MP said the plunder happened between the time the electoral commission announced William Ruto as President-elect on August 15 and the day he was sworn in on September 13 last year.
In that time, said DP Gachagua, Kenya lost more than Sh24 billion, which was allegedly embezzled by the individuals he has vowed to name soon.
“In the next few days, I will be releasing details of billions of shillings looted from public coffers in the last three months of the Uhuru administration,” said Mr Gachagua. “I will announce the ministers and PSs responsible so that Kenyans can know.”
Two days earlier, while speaking during an event in Serena Hotel, Nairobi, the Deputy President had alleged that top officials in the previous administration had stolen Sh16 billion before President Ruto was sworn in.
He claimed Sh10 billion was stolen during the Presidential election petition while another Sh6 billion was pilfered two days before the August 9 polls.
In the sensational revelations, the second-in-command further claimed Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga was forced to file the petition against his wishes. The DP claimed the presidential petition before the Supreme Court was used as a smokescreen by the “Uhuru men” to wipe clean the country’s coffers.
“When they saw the election was not going their way, they carted away the billions in sacks. [Raila didn’t want] the petition, He was forced to lodge it to allow them ...to loot more public resources,” said the 58-year-old.
The DP further alleged that the police air wing at Wilson Airport was where the money was being received before being loaded onto an aeroplane to be taken to people’s homes.
Mr Gachagua maintained that he was not crazy when he said during the inauguration ceremony last year that the Kenya Kwanza administration inherited empty public coffers.
“I said we got nothing at the National Treasury and they thought I was crazy. We found a broke country with nothing and the little that was remaining they stole during the transition. We have started from scratch,” he said.
In a veiled reference to the “Handshake” pact between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, the DP compared the two to pickpockets who “steal from you but when you raise the alarm they gang up on you and label you the thief.”
“These fellows who kept on shouting that they cannot hand over the country to thieves ... are the same people who have stolen money belonging to Kenyans,” said the DP. “They kept calling people thieves yet they are the top thieves. They behaved like pickpockets at Kencom,” he added.
