Mary Wachuka Maina, the Canada-based software developer who has sued four aides of President William Ruto for breach of contract, says she has been barred from entering the country.
Ms Wachuka, alongside her lawyer, Paul Muite, have alleged that her passport has been marked as “cancelled” in the Immigration Department’s systems, which means she cannot travel.
Ms Wachuka said she learnt of the cancellation of her Kenyan passport at a Canadian airport last Wednesday when she was blocked from travelling outside the North American nation.
Mr Muite said a government insider later confirmed to him that the document had been cancelled with no reason given.
Mary Wachuka ,whose passport has been cancelled.
Photo credit: Pool
“This is a clear case of violation of my client’s rights. There have been efforts to arm-twist her to drop the case in court. I’m in the process of formally filing a complaint after which we will move to court to seek redress,” the Senior Counsel said.
Both Ms Wachuka and Mr Muite said that there has been no formal communication on the cancellation. But Immigration Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Monday denied that Ms Wachuka’s passport had been cancelled, adding that there was no red alert or any reason why she should not enter the country.
“There are no encumbrances on the passport; it is just like any other passport,” Mr Kipsang said last evening.
But Ms Wachuka said a screen-shot of the passport details in the Immigration Department’s internal systems sent to her by a friend in the civil service clearly showed her travel document marked in red as cancelled.
She shared a copy of the screen-shot with the Nation. Ms Wachuka has alleged that the decision to nullify her citizenship is part of a wider scheme by government operatives to push her to drop a civil suit in which she is seeking millions of shillings in compensation from the State.
In the case, she claims that the Kenya Kwanza administration backtracked on a Sh123 million deal for the development of a spying and propaganda system that her Jipe Inc was to develop for the State.
The backtracking, she claims in court, happened after she had invested money, time and expertise to get the project rolling.
Ms Wachuka has sued Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Treasury PS Chris Kiptoo, businessman Jayesh Saini and President Ruto’s speech writer Eric Ng’eno for breach of contract.
Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
In the suit, Ms Wachuka claims she had been awarded a contract to develop a system capable of countering hostility and criticism against the government on social media, while shoring up President Ruto’s 2027 re-election campaign.
The system, she further claimed, would have been capable of managing social media pages of the President and his deputy. Mr Muite said this is not the first time Ms Wachuka has received threats aimed at pushing her to drop the court case.
The lawyer alleged that a telecommunications firm sent Ms Wachuka an email two weeks ago, threatening to de-register her Kenyan Sim card if she did not disclose her whereabouts.
On Monday, Ms Wachuka said she reached out to the telco’s customer care department after experiencing technical issues with her postpaid line, which she has been using for the past eight years while in Canada. She then sent a relative in Nairobi to visit the company’s head offices for an inquiry on the issues.
“I received an email asking me to provide details, including copies of my passport, ID and stamped page showing that I have left the country,” Ms Wachuka said.
She now believes that the telco was being used by powerful individuals in government to get information on her whereabouts in an attempt to force an out-of-court settlement of the case.
“I have held this line for years. Why is it that it is now that they (government) have discovered that I need to provide them with details of where I am currently?” Ms Wachuka posed.
The complainant, who identifies herself in court papers as an international data scientist and software engineer “with disruptive and innovative technology expertise”, is seeking $2,246,322 (Sh292 million) in compensation and an order restraining the defendants or their agents from “sending her and her mother menacing death threats by phone, email, or any other means over the contract or the claim.”
Mr Koskei, Mr Kiptoo and Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor have all denied Ms Wachuka’s claims.
In their response dated January 31 and filed through Senior State Counsel Bonn Bett, the officials told the court that they have never met Ms Wachuka as alleged.
Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
In their 22-point response, Mr Kiptoo and Mr Koskei have urged the court to dismiss the case.
They denied meeting Wachuka at Moxxies Restaurant in Kilimani, as alleged by the software developer, over the spying software.
They told the court that they instructed neither Mr Saini nor Mr Ng’eno to attend the meetings with Ms Wachuka.
“The 1st to 3rd defendants (Mr Kiptoo, Mr Koskei and the Attorney-General) further aver that at no time did they instruct any person, including the 5th defendant (Mr Ng’eno) to attend any meeting with the plaintiff in the capacity of an agent, representative or a proxy in whichever capacity,” the three said in their responses.
Ms Wachuka told the court that, on November 7, 2023, she met with Mr Ng’eno at Moxxies Restaurant in Kilimani for the first time.
She claimed that Mr Ng’eno, the secretary for policy messaging and the President’s official scriptwriter, informed her that Dr Ruto had tasked him “to source for technological solutions to guarantee consistency and clarity in government communications,” among other things.
Mr Ng’eno is alleged to have requested Ms Wachuka “as a matter of urgency” to develop “confidential software” to manage strategic communications toward Dr Ruto’s re-election bid in 2027.
“The software would have the capacity to spy on targets,” court papers say.
Ms Wachuka, who claims to have worked on such projects for governments worldwide, said she took notes of what Mr Ng’eno mentioned as the President’s wish list.
Mr Eric Ng'eno, President William Ruto's speech writer.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The court papers state that, during the meeting, Mr Ng’eno revealed the pain that President Ruto was allegedly undergoing with his communications team, which was apparently failing his administration.
The project was, therefore, urgent and Ms Wachuka was to drop all other assignments that she was undertaking and immediately commence the development of the software that would address the needs of the President’s communication department and that of his then deputy, Mr Rigathi Gachagua.
Mr Gachagua was subsequently impeached by Parliament in October and replaced by Prof Kithure Kindiki.
Mr Koskei, Mr Kiptoo and the Attorney-General have argued that such software would have been in violation of the Constitution and breached the Data Protection Act.
They further state that the court should not give Ms Wachuka any audience, as she has in her filings admitted to undertaking an illegal act.
“The plaintiff has expressly admitted perpetuating an illegality by proposing to develop and or by developing a system that is utter contravention of the Constitution of Kenya, hence cannot enjoy any protection of any manner by any court of law,” they said in their response.
On his part, Mr Saini has also disputed all the claims made by Ms Wachuka. In his court papers filed by Rachier and Amollo Advocates, the businessman said that he was not in any way involved in the development of the alleged software.
In his 15-point rebuttal, Mr Saini has urged the court to dismiss the case as it was lacking in merit and was based on falsehoods with the aim of tarnishing his name.
“The 4th defendant (Mr Saini) is a stranger to the contents,” he says in his court papers.
Ms Wachuka has claimed in her filings that Mr Saini was mentioned as one of the people who would be consulted for the purposes of funding the project.
She added that, on November 22, 2023, a follow-up meeting that she attended alongside Mr Ng’eno and Mr Saini took place at an office located in Arch Place on Nyangumi Road, Nairobi.
Before the meeting, Ms Wachuka claims, she disclosed to her associate that the proposal had been presented “to the government financier and oligarch named Jayesh Saini, who was put in charge of financing the whole software”.
Businessman Jayesh Umesh Saini.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
It was explained to Ms Wachuka that, owing to the confidentiality of the project, only Mr Saini would handle the finances and oversee its implementation.
During the meeting, she said, Mr Saini and his personal assistant, Mr Nishant Mishra, raised many issues, which made the data scientist doubt his ability to handle the matter.
Ms Wachuka said she did not hesitate to inform Mr Ng’eno of her reservations in executing the project under the supervision of Mr Saini.
Ms Wachuka further said that she threatened to terminate the contract if Mr Saini was the man to supervise her job.
Mr Ng’eno, Ms Wachuka added, prevailed upon her to allow Mr Saini to first present the project to President Ruto, after which a directive on how the project would be undertaken would be given.
Court papers reveal that the legal dispute emanated in New York, in the United States of America, where Ms Wachuka on May 13, 2024 had to pay $950,430 (Sh123 million) as compensation for breach of contract to a firm she had subcontracted for the collapsed Kenyan project.
