Big win for DP Gachagua as Asset Recovery Agency disowns DCI in his KSh200m case
DP Gachagua wins big again after ARA says his KSh200m was legitimately acquired
DP Gachagua wins big again after ARA says his KSh200m was legitimately acquired.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is poised to win yet another significant victory in court after the Asset Recovery Agency disowned evidence from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that was used to implicate him and his Sh200 million case.
According to ARA, the money was not the proceeds of crime as had been claimed in court, which resulted in the forfeiture decision, but rather income that had been lawfully acquired.
According to documents filed in court, Sergeant Fredrick Musyoki, a police investigator connected to ARA, the government agency never looked into claims made by the DCI that Mr. Gachagua received the money fraudulently from state institutions and Bungoma County.
In an affidavit filed at the Court of Appeal, Mr. Musyoki says when the DCI raised the claim, ARA seized the wealth without conducting its own verification.
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The Agency now concedes that the tenders awarded to DP Gachagua’s trading companies were not mired in fraud.
The investigator says that last month, ARA conducted its own independent investigations and established that “the companies performed their obligation as per the terms and conditions of the contracts to the satisfaction of the institutions.”
“There were no complaints or defaults raised or issued against the said contractor during or after the execution of the contract,” adds Mr. Musyoki in documents filed at the Court of Appeal.
ARA says it is ready to let the DP off the hook based on a discovery that the wealth is legit.
“The evidence obtained has satisfactorily explained the source and legitimacy of the funds at issue and the ARA is satisfied that the same is not proceeds of crime as was initially perceived and should be released to Rigathi Gachagua and Ms. Anne Kimemia,” the police investigator further says.
ARA, he says, forfeited the money on the basis of inconclusive investigations conducted by the DCI in a separate case that has since collapsed for lack of evidence.
If dropped, it will be the Deputy President’s second victory after another court case involving alleged graft was recently thrown out after it emerged that investigators had been pressured to fix Mr. Gachagua.
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