A witness in the impeachment case against the embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua released contradicting statements regarding the ownership of the Olive Garden Hotel.
The hotel is among the properties listed in the motion as assets that Gachagua has been accused of acquiring through graft as he has denied its ownership, claiming it belonged to his late brother Nderitu Gachagua.
In his witness statement, Peterson Muchira said that Gachagua approached him on March 31, 2023, and convinced him to purchase the hotel through an “informal secret agreement”.
Muchira claimed that Gachagua wanted to buy the hotel from him at Sh412 million. “The Deputy President would instruct and pay a contractor to renovate the hotel after the completion of the transaction,” said Muchira in his statement.
He further claimed that Gachagua then used a proxy identified as Julianne Jahenda “to protect the DP’s interest in the hotel” who was used as the facility’s signatory agent and also ran it.
“I have so far allowed Ms Julianne Jahenda to run the hotel as agreed with the Deputy President,” Muchira added.
While being prosecuted before the National Assembly on October 8, Gachagua argued that he had no ownership rights to the hotel since it belonged to his deceased brother.
“The allegations that I own the Olive Garden Hotel is false. Truth is the hotel used to belong to my deceased brother and therefore has never been my property,” he told Members of Parliament.
Olive Garden Hotel is part of four properties mentioned in the case under suspicions of corruptly acquiring them.
The others are Vipingo Beach Resort, Queensgate Apartment, and Lang’ata Highrise Flats which Gachagua has also claimed belonged to his late brother.
He will now face the Senate to make his last defense before knowing his fate.
His legal team and other petitioners had moved to court seeking to halt the Senate from prosecuting their request was quashed.
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