On June 7 nearly 2.5 million eligible Armenian voters will be participating in a parliamentary election whose outcome will determine the country’s next Prime Minister.
Among those seeking to succeed prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, is one of the “Artur Brothers” who burst into the Kenya’s national limelight after they were exposed as mercenaries behind the March 2006 raid on the Standard Group’s offices and printing press.
Armenia is a country in the Caucasus region of Asia but has close political and cultural links to Europe. It borders Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
The two Armenians, identified as Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargsyan, were later revealed to have close links to influential individuals and government officials close to President Mwai Kibaki.
Armenian brothers Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargsyan at a press conference in Kenya in 2006.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
There was more shock after they were found to have been designated as Assistant Commissioners of Police with VIP access to sensitive instalments.
They were eventually deported, causing more controversy as this was seen as a cover up by the government.
Coincidentally it is almost exactly 20 years since the pair left Kenya unceremoniously after causing a serious security scare at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on June 8, 2006.
In a recent interview with Infocom, an Armenian media outlet, the politician who is the leader of the Kochari National Revival and National Party, clarified that his real name is Artak Sargasyan and that “Artur Margaryan” and “Artur Sargasyan,” were just pseudonyms to hide their identities in Kenya.
The interview, which dedicates a significant amount of time on allegations about his Kibaki-era links to Kenya, is in Armenian and excerpts used in this article are based on translations.
Sargasyan revealed how he became an Assistant Police Commissioner in Kenya and his relationship with the daughter of politician Mary Wambui, a controversial figure who claimed to be President Kibaki’s second wife.
Since announcing his candidature, Sargasyan has been giving a series of interviews to whitewash his controversial past.
In a tell-all interview with Armenian Noyan Tapan Media Holding on Feb 18, 2026, Sargsyan claimed he was involved in counter-terrorism operations against a Somalia-based terror group and alleged that he and his brother drew the plan for South Sudan independence, which was later embraced by the International community to bring peace.
Artur Sargsyan is seeking to become next Prime Minister of Armenia.
Photo credit: John Nyagah | Nation Media Group
While the claims appear farfetched and implausible, they show the extent to which Sargsyan is ready to go to present himself as a leader of international repute who is suitable to lead Armenia.
To counter criticism that he lacks experience to run a government, Sargsyan touted what he called his “transformative work” in Kenya by alleging that he changed Kenya from a country where police officers cooperated with criminals to a “Dubai of Africa”.
According to him, this transformation involved rebuilding the Kenyan police from scratch with the assistance of a former Chicago police chief. There is no public record of any such involvement other than the Artur Brothers’ irregular identification as Assistant Commissioner of Police before their deportation.
He goes on to claim that because of the improved security, Kenya became a stable, high-wage economy that began attracting foreign labour and investors. He declared that he wants to replicate the same in Armenia, emphasising that his work in foreign countries has enabled him to acquire extensive governance experience.
The duo, thought to have arrived in Kenya in 2005, grabbed international headlines in March 2006 when opposition politicians led by Raila Odinga connected them to the raid on the Standard Media group in Nairobi.
Raila had, before this, revealed that the Kibaki government had recruited two “Russian mercenaries” before clarifying that they were, in fact, Armenians.
They were identified as the Artur Brothers and came out to publicly display their flashy lifestyles and political connections while claiming to be wealthy investors.
On March 2, 2006, heavily armed and masked police officers stormed the media house, vandalised the printing press, detained staff and left behind a trail of destruction. They also raided the company’s newsroom in Nairobi’s city centre.
John Michuki, Kenya’s internal Security Minister at the time, defended the operation by stating that “If you rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it”.
Former Internal Security Minister the late John Michuki.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The police, who did not explain why those involved wore masks and did not have a court order, justified it by saying the raid was conducted because the media house planned to publish fake news aimed at destabilising the country. The Standard denied having any such story.
The opposition led by Raila Odinga accused the two brothers of being behind the raid and described them as mercenaries. In a show of arrogance and defiance, the seemingly untouchable brothers held a press conference at the VIP lounge at Jomo Kenyatta International and denied being mercenaries, saying, “We are not mercenaries, but even if we were, your government would not have enough money to hire us.”
Amid the drama, Larry Andre, the then Political Counsellor at the US Embassy, wrote a cable to Washington stating, “Popular opinion held that individuals high in the Kenya government or close to it, in particular Kibaki’s second wife Mary Wambui, brought the Armenians to Kenya. Their lavish flamboyant behavior and receipt of various privileges from the Government of Kenya drew widespread unfavorable notice. They were granted Work permits as well as being designated as Assistant Police Commissioners.”
The brothers responded to accusations of their affiliations with prominent Kenyans, and speculation as to the true nature of their business by stating that they were involved in the motor vehicle importation business, had interests in real estate and were planning to build a steel plant.
They also denied allegations about their ties with senior Kenya government officials. Around that time, the National Intelligence Service warned the government that the two were connected to a drug trafficking syndicate.
They also operated two companies, namely Kensington Holdings and Brother Link International, which they used to import various goods without paying taxes. Despite these warnings, the two were still allowed to operate in Kenya with impunity.
Three months later, on June 8, 2006, the controversial duo were in the spotlight again when they stormed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, flashing firearms and accessed a highly restricted area where they assaulted customs officials.
It turned out that their accomplice had imported surveillance cameras and was resisting paying duty on the imports. With their show of force, they were able to whisk the lady and her luggage past the customs inspection.
The Artur brothers, Margaryan (left) and Sargsyan.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The incident caused an intense outburst of public anger, with many questioning why foreigners were flagrantly violating Kenyan laws without action being taken against them.
To save face, the government purported to conduct an operation by raiding their home in Runda and announced the recovery of weapons, ammunition, Government of Kenya plated vehicles and bulletproof vests.
Although the men were arrested on June 9, they were not detained and charged, as would be appropriate for criminals, but were allowed to leave quietly in the guise of deportation. One brother was allowed to fly out using a false passport, while the other was provided with emergency travel documents.
On June 11, 2006, as the dust began to settle, The Sunday Nation revealed that on June 4, 2006, just four days before storming JKIA, the two brothers had attended a church service at the Holy Family Basilica alongside Winnie Wangui, who was alleged to be President Kibaki’s daughter.
That night, the usually mild-mannered president issued a terse personal statement describing the report as personally distressing to him and emphasised that he only had one family, which had no connections with the controversial brothers.
“I have only one family which consists of the First Lady Mrs Lucy Kibaki, Sons Jimmy, David, Tony and their wives and children,” he said. “No member of my family has had any dealings with the said foreigners …I am, therefore, demanding that the newspaper apologise to me and my family for the blatant lies.”
This should not be confused with a televised statement Kibaki gave in March 2009, declaring that he had only one wife.
Nevertheless, although Kibaki went on to announce the formation of a commission to investigate the activities of the two brothers, chaired by former Police chief Shadrack Kiruki, this was dismissed as a mere PR exercise meant to buy time to allow the dust to settle.
Romantic relationship with Winnie Wangui
William Bellamy, the then US Ambassador to Kenya, wrote in a classified diplomatic cable,
“The Kibaki Government's reaction is classically formulaic: find a scapegoat and form a committee to investigate. Giving the Commission of inquiry a distant deadline, the government can buy time while waiting for public memories to fade. Legal action against any of the culprits is unlikely. Accountability is further hamstrung by the release of the Armenians. The security itself.”
In 2007, a parliamentary committee also released a report on the activities of the Artur Brothers and their associates, which concluded that they had direct connections and protection “at the highest level of government”.
The MPs also said “the evidence adduced on the matter of the Artur brothers was manipulated with a view to concealing their true intention of being in in Kenya and to protect their sponsors” and their presence was part of “a conspiracy to commit atrocities”.
A week ago, on May 29, 2026, Sargasyan held a two-hour interview with an Armenian news outlet, Infocom, to clarify some of the elements of his dark past that have continued to shadow his bid for Armenian premiership. Although the interview is entirely in Armenian, the built-in YouTube auto-translate is able to generate English subtitles.
In the interview, he admitted having a romantic relationship with Winnie, the woman alleged to be Kibaki’s daughter, revealing that they first met in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I met her in Congo during (President) Joseph Kabila’s birthday, then we invited her to Dubai.”
This marked the beginning of his journey to Kenya, he said.
Providing his version of a chronological account on how he left Armenia and eventually ended up in Africa, where he made powerful friends, Sargasyan stated that after leaving his homeland, he headed to Dubai, where he ventured into the air freight business with his brother.
Artur Margaryan. He was deported from Kenya in 2006.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
This took them to DR Congo, which turned out to be incredibly lucrative compared to the Middle East. While there, he claimed he befriended President Joseph Kabila, whom he described as “My close friend” in the interview.
Asked how he met him, he replied, “His sister did business with us.”
This could be in reference to the former DRC President’s twin sister, Jaynet Kabila, a prominent businesswoman who was also a powerful politician during her brother’s reign.
The Kabilas, whose father Laurent-Désiré Kabila was president until his assassination in 2001, also had an alleged half-sister, Aimee Mulengela, who was killed under controversial circumstances in 2008.
It was while hobnobbing with the Kabila clan that the “Artur brothers” claimed they came to know Winnie Wangui and eventually moved to Kenya for business after her alleged father, Mwai Kibaki, was elected as president in 2002.
In a series of intriguing allegations of how he became a top Kenyan cop at the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sargarsyan told the interviewers that sometime after the wheelchair bound Mwai Kibaki took over the presidency from President Daniel Moi in January 2003, there were suspicions about the elite Recce squad tasked with guarding the president because a majority of them were from Moi’s Kalenjin ethnic community.
This suspicion towards the unit was not surprising, considering the vindictiveness the officers who had served under President Moi were subjected to by a cabal around Mwai Kibaki that was trying to entrench its own tribal dominance in the security apparatus.
It was against this backdrop that he said the “Artur brothers” found themselves at the helm of the Kenya police despite being foreigners.
The allegations in the interview continue to be even more sensational. According to Sargasyan, one day, they received information that Kibaki, who was still struggling with mobility, was under siege at the State House. Alongside a senior Kenyan police officer and other 30 loyal individuals, they stormed State House to free Kibaki who told them that he was fine.
After the operation, Sargasyan claimed they decided to form a special unit drawn from the GSU, adding that a senior officer at State House told him, “I’ll want you to be Assistant Commissioner of Police but you won’t belong to the Police Commissioner, you will belong to me.”
And that’s how he became an Assistant Commissioner of Police, according to his version of events.
“Our identities were protected, and were only uncovered after the raid on East African Standard,” he revealed in the interview.
Going by these allegations, he seems to be suggesting he was in Kenya as early as 2003, way before the Raila revelation and the 2006 Standard Group raid
Was this the beginning of the Rapid Response Unit (Kanga Squad), a shadowy police unit whose officers were drawn from the GSU but were answerable to Joseph Kamau, the then Criminal Investigation Department Director?
It is worth noting that the unit first came to light during the Standard raid that involved the Armenian brothers.
“The raiders were hooded and wore clothing with the description RRU Rapid Response Unit also popularly known as the Kanga Squad within the Police Force”, read a 2007 parliamentary report on the saga.
The squad was later disbanded after it was implicated in the rising cases of abductions and extra-judicial killings. Many of its former officers were killed in a well calculated plot to cover-up its activities.
On claims that the “Artur brothers” were involved in drug trafficking, Sargsyan denied this but alleged they were part of the group that founded a drug enforcement agency, and used their own money to build a safe where the seized drugs were kept.
“We built the safe with our own money. We had three keys to the safe. I had one, the CID boss had one, and the GSU Commandant had one,” he told the interviewers.
He further alleged that he was involved in the seizure of a shipment of 1.1 metric tonnes of cocaine that were found hidden in Embakasi Nairobi and Malindi at the Coast in December 2004.
Intelligence reports and investigative findings have always linked the two to the drug consignment, noting that they worked closely with drug cartels who sought alternative channels for trafficking through Mombasa and Malindi.
The bizarre handling of the drug case, the failure to account for another consignment that was in police custody and the mysterious murder of GSU officer Erastus Chemorei in February 2005, fuelled speculations that the government was trying to shield politically connected individuals who were operating a drug smuggling ring.
But why were the foreigners using their own money to build a safe for keeping seized drugs? It is a question that raises further speculation.
William Bellamy, whose tenure as US Ambassador to Kenya was defined by security and counterterrorism cooperation, cabled Washington: “The security lapse, itself is deeply troubling. Is symptomatic of a deeper malaise: a government which has lost its way and allows this kind of activity to go on under its nose (or with the connivance of its own members) in hopes of somehow benefiting from the criminal behavior committed by such characters.”
A 2007 parliamentary report on the saga would later implicate the woman alleged to be Kibaki’s daughter and top government officials, stating, “Evidence adduced before the Committee established that the Artur brothers had direct connections at the highest levels of government. Mary Wambui and her daughter Winnie Wangui Mwai, were close associates of the Artur brothers. Mr Stanley Murage, Permanent Secretary and Special Advisor to the President based at State House was a key player in the saga.”
Murage wielded great influence in Kibaki’s administration due to his proximity to power and was often described in low tones as the gatekeeper to the presidency following the departure of Matere Kereri as State House Comptroller.
In the recent interview, Sargasyan claimed he was not viewed as a hero by the Kenyan media after everything he did because most outlets were linked to the opposition at the time.
After leaving Kenya, the controversial pair went off the grid until 2013 when reports emerged about their presence in the Maldives where they were constantly monitored by the country’s security.
A couple of months later the archipelagic nation’s government ordered them to leave, and they went off radar again until 2023, when they resurfaced in Armenia to participate in political campaigns, and eventually formed their own political party the Kochari National Revival and National Party.
He also aims to position the country as a neutral diplomatic hub that doesn’t lean towards Russia or the West.
“He envisions a country that maintains warm, high-level relations with both the West and Russia, utilizing its vast diaspora as a strategic asset much like Israel.”
The Prime Minister of Armenia is elected by Parliament after nomination by the party that holds majority seats.
Reuters reports that the Sunday election is a test for Prime Minister Pashinyan, the frontrunner, in his “efforts to forge peace with long-time foe Azerbaijan, and deepen ties with Western countries, moving away from traditional patron Russia”.
