Reprieve for Waititu as Kshs. 588-million Corruption Case is Dropped

 

Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu alias Baba Yao

Former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu is a happy man after the Kshs. 588-million corruption case in which he was implicated was dropped by the Kiambu court.

Waititu alias Baba Yao had been charged alongside his wife, Susan Wangari and nine co-accused of dealing with public property through his company, Saika Two Estate Limited.

The case involved the tender for the roads project issued in February 2021 and awarded to Testimony Enterprise owned by Charles Chege and Beth Mburu with a quotation of Kshs. 588 million.

It had been alleged that Mr. Ferdinand Waititu had in July 2020 and March 2021 knowingly acquired an indirect private interest of Kshs. 25.6 million at Kiambu county in respect to payments made to Testimony Enterprises Limited for the contracts awarded to the company.

Among those who testified in the case were two members of the Tender committee, Beatrice Waithera and Dennis Thuku, and Samuel Karanja from the ICT department.

Over a year later, today the Kiambu court dismissed the case on grounds of lack of evidence.

The judgement has divided opinion on twitter, coming a few hours after John Waluke lost his appeal in the Maize scandal case. 

The DAP-K Party mocked the independence of the Kenyan institutions tagging the IEBC, EACC and the Kenyan judiciary. The tweet alleged the institutions had been turned into "political soothers for the pro-government suspects with corruption cases and apprehending those aligned to Azimio".

It should be remembered that Waititu supported Ruto in the August presidential election with Waluke on the opposing side, supporting Raila and in extension Azimio. 

However, we could not independently verify that political affiliations had anything to do with judgements involving Sirisia MP Mr. Waluke and former Kiambu governor Mr. Waititu.