Anne Waiguru led the NYS looting - suspect

– Former devolution CS Anne Waiguru resigned after sustained pressure from the public over corruption in her ministry
– Waiguru has maintained that she is innocent and a whistleblower who helped uncover the rot in the devolution ministry
– EACC has also cleared her of any wrong doing. Waiguru has since welcomed the move
– However, damning claims made by one of the suspects in the scandal indicate that Waiguru actually masterminded the looting and involved a number of government officials for cover-up
– Among those who helped Waiguru loot are political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi, two journalists, EACC officials and other government officials
– The latest comes as Waiguru declared her interest in the Nairobi gubernatorial seat

A businesswoman has tabled explosive papers in court linking former devolution cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru to the looting of KSh791 million National Youth Service (NYS) money.
Josephine Kabura, who is one of the people facing charges over the corruption that saw Kenyans lose colossal amounts of money, says that she was a close associate of Waiguru during her days as CS and she (Waiguru) facilitated the looting of the money.
Kabura has also revealed how Waiguru tried to cover up the looting by diverting attention from investigating bodies and implicating junior officers in her ministry.
Some of the schemes included slapping the suspects with funny charges to assuage public anger, directing blame at third parties (some of them allegedly innocent) and using public officials in elaborate cover-ups.
Whereas Waiguru claims to be a whistleblower in the saga that saw her resign due to public pressure, Kabura has claimed that the former CS was aware of the payments and was involved in the cover-up of the scheme when investigations started.
While doing all this, Waiguru was all along advised by political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi on how to cover up the ordeal, Kabura claims.
Kabura says that Waiguru facilitated the registration of her companies and introduced her to doing business with NYS on the agreement that they would both benefit once the deals were done and closed.

“That it was agreed that to disguise the truth, NYS staff would be charged in a phony set-up for the purpose of driving favourable public perception,” Kabura says in a 112-point affidavit presented in court on Monday, February 15.

Waiguru also gave her specific instructions to open bank accounts for the companies at Family Bank, specifically at the Kenya Tea Development Authority Plaza branch. Here, Waiguru called an employee of the bank and instructed him to ensure the accounts were opened and operated without hiccups.
Kabura also says that Waiguru instructed her to work closely with her (Waiguru) sister, Loise Mbarire, who would be given money regularly.

“Most of the time the CS Waiguru would request that I give part of profits to a lady named Loise Mbarire, Waiguru’s sister, who was supposed to give back the money to me or the CS Waiguru after servicing her deliveries,” Kabura says.

When Central Bank started suspecting the looting, Kabura says that Waiguru called her to a meeting in her Runda home. Others present in the meeting were Mutahi Ngunyi, Adan Harakhe (former NYS official), Hassan Noor (Chief of Staff at Devolution ministry) and Joseph Mugwanja (director at the Banking Fraud Department).

“Mr. Mutahi advised Madam Waiguru to do an official statement to cool down public anger. He also advised her to do a backdated letter on the purportedly stolen password… This backdated letter was dated June 5, 2015,” Kabura claims further.

Mugwanja was instructed to divert the attention of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) investigators. He was promised to be helped to become CID director. Mugwanja alongside detectives from EACC, would later, under instructions from Waiguru, go to Kabura’s office and get KSh80 million in cash which was kept in two bags.

“The person on the phone was CS Waiguru who instructed that I hand to one Mr Mugwanja KSh80 million I had earlier disclosed to Waiguru I had kept in the two safes,” Kabura says further.

Others who gave her instructions to either deposit money in bank accounts or “to strangers” were Mutahi Ngunyi and Harakhe.
She reveals how Harakhe requested her to meet him at his office and that she carries along KSh20 million in cash, which he later told her to hand over to a gentleman only introduced as Mohammed.

“In prodding further about why a stranger was being given the KSh20 million, he told me that it was meant to facilitate more business. Further Harakhe also requested that I deposit KSh40 million in an account number he gave me. I informed CS Waiguru about the monies requested by Harakhe and she told me that she was aware and that I should make the deposit as he had requested,” she further claims.

Kabura says that Waiguru also introduced her to two journalists, Mwaniki Munuhe and Maina Kamore, whom she said were her media gurus. Waiguru told her she had been working with the two since joining the government. She instructed her to give Munuhe KSh10 million for purposes of propaganda and to assist clean her name.
Kabura would, however, later be arrested and be charged with abuse of office. The CS had informed her that her name would be included on the charge sheet with her three companies but since there was delivery of works and genuine merchants documents with proper payment process done, Waiguru assured her that only funny charges would be preferred against her.
Waiguru had said that this would reduce the pressure on her to step aside and the charges would technically water down her case and also make it easy for the CS to help her when public interest in the case subsided.
Waiguru had also pushed for charges of many people, including the permanent secretary, Peter Mangiti and NYS director, Nelson Githinji, so that she would not be implicated anywhere.
Waiguru resigned after sustained public pressure but said she was following her doctor’s advice and asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to consider her for lighter duties.

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