The Sh791 million NYS scandal took a new twist yesterday, after former CS Anne Waiguru dragged Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen into the mess, claiming he had threatened her against pursuing investigations.
In response to the damning affidavit by one of the key suspects in the NYS scam Josephine Kabura, Waiguru says Murkomen told her to tell the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to drop the investigations into the scandal or “face unspecified consequences if I did not adhere to these demands”.
Waiguru says it was after she refused to budge that allegations were made linking her to the loss of millions at the NYS.
“I . . . pushed the DCI to conclude investigations. Soon thereafter proceedings for my impeachment by an MP from the URP wing of the Jubilee coalition and calls for my resignation peaked.”
Waiguru says on July 10 last year during the course of DCI investigations, Aden Harakhe informed her through a memo that there had been various attempts by political actors to intimidate him.
The said memo stated that on June 18 Harakhe was texted and called by Jubilee Chief Whip Adan Duale, who advised him that he required political support and that leaders from his region came from URP.
“Duale warned that he needed to be careful, lest he is used and dumped by the other side of the coalition,” reads part of the affidavit.
Waiguru says another person involved with the principal actors of Sh791 million were Farouk Kibet, Personal Assistant to Deputy President William Ruto, who, in the DCI report, was closely associated with Ben Gethi. She says the reports indicated that there were close relations between Farouk and Gethi and indeed some of the payments made by Gethi include a payment to Farouk.
Waiguru says if she was involved in the scam there would be evidence of communication between her and the named principal actors, which there isn’t.
It is Waiguru’s opinion that Kabura was only, and continues to be, a front for a broader, more powerful cartel with various beneficiaries from the political establishment and the bureaucracy facilitated by officers from the Devolution ministry.
She says the constant accusations against her without any foundation are meant to achieve political ends, to punish her for stopping the fraud at NYS and to divert attention from the real fraudsters and their backers.
“I played no role whatsoever in the fraudulent activities at the NYS, but have become a convenient scapegoat. During my tenure as the Cabinet Secretary, I did all within my powers to ensure observance of the requisite laws,” she says.
Waiguru further claims the affidavit by Kabura is a figment of her imagination, calculated to divert attention from the real architects of the NYS fraud and to attract media attention for nefarious purposes.
She says if Kabura had ever been her friend or served her in any capacity, there would be evidence of communication with her on routine issues even before she started the purported business with NYS.
“There is no evidence of any communication between me and Kabura and yet she purports to have been my friend before the said NYS business and the fraudulent transactions, ”she says.
“It is clear from the contents of her affidavit that the material she depones is gathered from sources who know some things about me, from media and official data and not from her personal knowledge of me,” she adds.
She says her interactions with political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi, whom Kabura has quoted in her affidavit, were based on the restructuring of the National Youth Service and Ngunyi was representing a firm known as The Consulting Firm that had been contracted by the ministry to assist with the restructuring of the NYS.
Waiguru denied ever meeting Star journalist Maina Kamore.