President William Ruto's administration will go after the illegally acquired wealth by senior government officials who served under Uhuru Kenyatta.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has revealed that individuals who 'masterminded state capture' during retired President Kenyatta's tenure will soon“face the music”.
In a wide-ranging interview with a local TV station on Sunday night, Gachagua who spoke in his native Kikuyu language, insisted that influential official who enriched themselves will be brought to account.
Gachagua said the alleged corruption cartel comprised “about 10 people who stole billions from the economy in manipulated deals”.
“They were very vocal in telling Kenyans not to vote for thieves yet they were the real thieves. They had started subdividing public land among themselves in Galana Kulalu [in Coast region] and in Kibiku in Ngong,” he said.
“Thieves had even captured Kenya Airways, which charges the highest air travel rates in the world and whose aeroplanes operate on full capacity but would be said to be making losses.”
The DP said the so called cartels had massive control over the banking sector as they owned banks, controlling interest rates.
He alleged that during the Kenyatta era, every public policy was designed to earn cartels in the banking industry “ handsome profits”.
However, the DP said President Ruto will not concentrate on naming and shaming the individuals in the 'cartel' but “ we will cancel their ill-gotten title deeds, deals and interests”.
Gachagua also alleged that the same cartels were behind corruption in the police service and extra-judicial killings.
“All those officers and their masters who murdered Kenyans ... left people orphans, widows and widowers ... we might not come after you but you will never find peace,” he said.
Additionally, Gachagua claimed, the same cartel executed grand corruption at the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The fund, he said, will now be restructured to become as a premier public health insurer for civil servants.
“We have since picked Michael Kamau as the NHIF board chairman. A man who the former regime persecuted even when it was clear that he was among the most patriotic and committed civil servants. He suffered for being a friend of Ruto,” Gachagua said.
“Kamau will soon bar those thieving private sector health insurers from covering government employees”.
Gachagua also alleged that some influential families were behind graft cartels in the milk, tea and coffee sectors and were blocking reforms so that they could continue enslaving farmers.
“The cartel even borrowed money to pay tea bonuses from the big man’s banks to make money and deceptively make farmers believe that the sector had been reformed,” he said.
“We will not pay for that loan since farmers did not approve it,” he said, vowing that “the President will not accept since it was a creation of the big man’s cartel”.
