Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu is trapped in a downward spiral as his woes seem to multiply by the day.
An asset finance firm has now threatened to auction his property after he defaulted on a Sh10 million loan he took on January 27 last year. He was impeached by the Senate two days later on graft claims.
Mwananchi Credit Limited (MCL) has seized Mr Waititu’s two luxury vehicles, which he used as collateral for the loan.
The former governor has moved to court seeking to block the auction, arguing he has fallen on hard economic times and wants more time to repay the loan.
In documents filed at Kiambu Law Courts, Mr Waititu says he is unable to service the loan since he has no sustainable income after he was pushed out of office.
He argues that the little money he gets goes towards paying legal fees to defend himself against graft charges related to his tenure as governor.
“That due to current financial constraints I am facing, I am unable to clear the said loan within the afore stated period but I hasten to add that with a lot of difficulties coupled with the fact that I am facing numerous cases before an anti-corruption court which has incurred me a lot of costs and expenses by hiring advocates. I have endeavoured to at least clear a sum of Sh1,280,000,” Mr Waititu says through an affidavit.
Mr Waititu was ousted by the county assembly in December 2019 and the Senate upheld his impeachment the following month.
He was charged alongside his wife Susan Wangari and eight others over graft allegations related to tenders worth Sh580 million.
When his trial opened last year, prosecutors claimed Mr Waititu pocketed a Sh25.6 million kick-back from a contractor, who was reportedly fraudulently awarded a road construction tender by the county government in 2018.
The court heard that Mr Waititu received the money from Testimony Enterprises Ltd, which had been awarded a Sh588 million tender.
A diagram presented in court at the time indicated that Sh221, 490, 499 was moved from the county government to Testimony Enterprises Limited in 42 transactions between April 6, 2018 and March 11, 2019.
While seeking an order restraining MCL from selling his cars, Mr Waititu argues that he is going “to suffer an immeasurable loss”.
The two vehicles are at Startruck Yard on Kiambu Road. The former governor has pleaded with the court to give him a more flexible repayment plan.
His only other option is to dispose some of his properties to settle the debt, he argues. Mr Waititu is involved in real estate and the hospitality sector.
“That I am not disputing owing the first defendant/respondent company claim, there is a dispute over the actual balance owing to the first defendant but I pray for a reasonable time within which to sell some of my properties and clear all the outstanding loan balance upon calculation of the same, and/or in alternative be allowed to settle the same by considerable instalments,” he states in his affidavit.
In July last year, MCL chief executive Dennis Mombo wrote to Mr Waititu requesting him to clear the bill and outstanding interest totalling Sh10,188,422.
“I am writing in reference to our meeting held today that you should settle the stated amount before end of August. Failure to which the account will continue to accrue a penalty of five per cent flat until final settlement,” Mr Mombo stated.
A few months ago, Mr Waititu told Nation.Africa his fortunes had dwindled since he was impeached and that the powerful people he thought were his friends were no longer picking his calls.
“I have now understood local politics better. When I was the governor, I used to receive a lot of calls from different people, especially politicians seeking different favours from me. I built their careers and helped them win electoral seats but now they don’t pick my calls,” Waititu said.
“I stopped calling them but that is the nature of politics; people calling you when you are in a position to help them but not when you are out of politics.”
