What to know about the case behind DP Gachagua’s attacks on Justice Esther Maina

Not so long ago, Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua was a cornered man; complete with handcuffs. He cut a lonely image in the cold dock of the anti-corruption court in Nairobi.

After the court appearance, the then first-term Member of Parliament for Mathira had been arrested by the DCI in an early morning raid at his Nyeri home and whisked to the DCI headquarters to explain how some Ksh.12 billion allegedly passed through his accounts.

The arrest of the then-legislator was the culmination of what the DCI then termed as months of investigations that had revealed a complex web of money transfers that passed through accounts linked to Gachagua, and his proxies.

The DCI then indicated that most of the transfers ultimately ended up in a company that had Rigathi Gachagua and his wife Pastor Dorcas Rigathi as the only shareholders.

Detectives from the DCI at the time indicated that Gachagua had used his companies and proxies to fraudulently procure multibillion-shilling health tenders in the counties and the national government.

The DP was then charged in court alongside nine other people with amongst other things conflict of interest, conspiracy to defraud the Nyeri County government, fraudulent acquisition of public property and money laundering.

For instance, he and a company, Rapid Medical Suppliers Ltd acquired Ksh.6 million from the Nyeri county government for the supply of Dialysis machines to Nyeri Provincial General Hospital.

In a separate incident, he was accused of obtaining Ksh.104 million from the Bungoma county government suspected to be proceeds of crime between January 2015 and June 2019.

He was accused of conflict of interest when he allegedly acquired an indirect interest in a contract for the construction of Njathaini primary school, which was funded by Mathira CDF when he was the Mathira MP.

The charges also stated that Gachagua received Ksh.7.3 billion in his three bank accounts at Rafiki Micro-Finance Bank, funds which were allegedly deposited between 2013 and 2020.

In the run-up to the general election in 2022, the then deputy presidential candidate was ordered by the courts, in the case presided over by Lady Justice Esther Maina, to forfeit some Ksh.200 million to the state.

And for that ruling, Gachagua, now Deputy President wants Justice Esther Maina fired.

“I will personally present a petition before Lady Justice Martha Koome against Justice Esther Maina for her removal from the judiciary for misconduct and corruption,” he said on Sunday.

“Huyo judge through corruption declared my hard-earned wealth as proceeds of crime without giving me an opportunity to be heard, against the rule of evidence, where he who alleges must proof, we made an application to examine the prosecutor akakataa.”

The case against Gachagua is among several corruption cases that were withdrawn within months of the ascendance to power by President William Ruto and Gachagua.

In the wake of Gachagua’s targeting of the judge of his case, the sustained attacks on the Judiciary by the executive arm of government are likely to be seen as laden with a heavy dose of personal interests.

Justice Esther Maina, in her ruling, said the Assets Recovery Agency had proved that the MP and his companies benefitted from funds but did not deliver any goods or provide any services to the ministries or agencies, which gave tenders to him.

Gachagua's case was later dismissed after a DCI officer withdrew the affidavit on whose strength the case against the MP was based.

The officer claimed that his team had been instructed to recommend that the MP and his nine co-accused be charged before the investigations were concluded.

And though the court never got the chance to test the facts of the case, and indeed the case was dropped, the DP has dragged the matter to the centre of the official attacks against court decisions and the judiciary; and without flinching, Gachagua is going for his pound of flesh.