The High Court will next month rule on whether Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua will be allowed to cross-examine an investigator linking him to alleged embezzlement of Sh200 million.
Gachagua through Lawyer Kioko Kilukumi told Anti-Corruption Judge Esther Maina that the figures as tabled by the Assets Recovery Agency need to be clarified before the case proceeds.
“We need to cross-examine the investigator and in the process, the court will have a chance to observe his demeanour and credibility of the witness,” he said.
Justice Maina will deliver the ruling on November 4.
The agency wants Gachagua to forfeit more than Sh200 million suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Investigator Fredrick Musyoki has in an affidavit detailed how the MP schemed with his business associates to acquire the money from various state agencies through money laundering and corrupt practices.
The MP has since claimed he is being persecuted for being a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto, and that his wealth had nothing to do with money laundering.
This has been denied by the agency.
ARA, in its suit against Gachagua, filed last year, alleged that his accounts conducted a series of huge suspicious debit transactions amounting to Sh7.3 billion and a total credit of Sh12.5 billion between 2013 and last year, which they believe were proceeds of crime.
Out of the huge bank transactions, the agency claimed the MP and his business associates could not explain how they acquired Sh202 million, which should be forfeited to the State.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
