State refutes claims it left Githunguri innovators in Sh3.5m debt

The government has refuted claims it dupped two innovators from Githunguri, Kiambu county.

The state on Monday said one of the entreprenuers who were to manufacture hospital beds had a criminal record.

President's Delivery Unit Secretary Andrew Wakahiu said the government's intention to procure the locally manufactured hospital beds from the two entrepreneurs ran into headwinds after it emerged one of them was facing several criminal allegations.

He said the revelations were made even as the visit to the workshop where the innovators claim to have been making and storing the beds that have left them wallowing in debts showed little activity with on a single ready bed.

In July 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave a major boost to the two youthful innovators after he instructed the President's Delivery Unit to procure 500 beds from them.

The beds that were to be made from locally sourced material from their workshop in Githunguri, Kiambu county, would then be subjected to standardisation tests by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

They were to play a vital aid to public hospitals that are reeling under the pressure of Covid-19 related hospital admissions.

But according to Wakahiu, the government faced challenges processing the offer to procure the beds after obtaining intelligence that Mungai Gathogo was facing at least three cases related to fraud and obtaining money by pretense.

Records at the Githunguri police station indicate that Gathogo had three pending criminal cases relating to obtaining money by false pretense and disappearance of a motor vehicle that he had hired.

As soon as the government began the process of formalising the offer, a complaint was lodged claiming that Gathogo had conned a victim some Sh800,000.

As a result, he was locked up in cells for three days until his father refunded the said amount.

Wakahiu spoke on Monday when he visited the workshop.

He said wrangles around the ownership of the firm that had claimed to have been behind the beds complicated the matter.

"After we visited and we made the offer, vicious arguments on the control and management of the company between the two innovators and a man who claimed to be the real owner of the firm," he said.

Wakahiu said the said owner claimed he had only contracted the duo to help market the beds.

He said notwithstanding the issues, the government went out of its way to help the trio clear the debts they claimed they had incurred by offering to buy the entire stock of what was ready.

"A lorry hired to ferry the beds the trio claimed to have already made was forced to return empty after it emerged there was no such goods despite Gathogo's oft-repeated claims in the media," Wakahiu said.

Gathogo and his friend Joseph Muhinja had claimed that they have incurred a debt of Sh3.5 million after the state promised to buy locally manufactured beds from them.

They said the amount had accrued after importing materials for the beds.

"We came here prepared to buy all the beds and other materials these young men claim to have made regardless of the controversies around the firm ownership because we didn't want to ruin their lives by the debt," he said.