Kenyan-born Australian senator Lucy Gichuhi and her husband William have been going through financial crisis for a while now.
The Senator has, according to the Daily Mail, been sued on seven different occasions for failing to pay council rates and water bills amounting to more than Ksh1 million, all of which she is not contesting.
“The Senator pays all of her debts, did not contest any of these matters and is honouring any associated payment plans,” her chief of staff, Mark Mudri stated.
The couple owns six real estate properties in Australia, a home and two plots of land back home in Kenya.
Ms Gichuhi, while delivering her maiden speech at the Senate admitted to have struggled with the temptations that come with mortgages.
“We were not able to resist the offers of multiple loans – a home loan, personal loans, car loans and credit cards,” she said.
Speaking to Citizen TV, the liberal senator said that her Ksh20 million salary per year was little.
Reports also indicate that the couple could be knee-deep in debt hence the sale of their various homes.
One of her three-bedroom house on Bevan Crescent, purchased in 2005 for Ksh5.07 million ($50,750) was on sale for a whooping Ksh16.5 million ($165,000). The sale was later withdrawn, but was back on the market a few months later at a reduced price of Ksh15 million ($150,000).
The Gichuhis then tried selling one of the Whyalla houses on Sugg Street on three different occasions, but could not sell.
In October 2009 the Kenyan-born couple paid Sh.28.4 million for a three-bedroom house at Carona Avenue, which they later listed for rent at Sh.27,215 a week.
Ms Gichuhi also refuses to explain why in August, September and November 2017, she asked for Ksh773,000 for ‘electorate business’ to visit Sydney, a 1 hour 55 minute flight from Adelaide, where she is situated.
Read: Senator Lucy Gichuhi Exported Corruption to Australia, Forced to Pay Back Ksh 200,000
According to a Taxpayer-funded entitlement claims, the Senator claimed more than Ksh200,000 in travel allowance from taxpayers between August 17 and 22, 2017 to visit Sydney.
During that period, Ms Gichuhi asked for Ksh40,000 per day and an additional Ksh40,822 in travel allowance for visiting Sydney on September 11.
On November 25 while attending the African Professionals Australia Gala at Parramatta, Kahawa Tungu has learnt that the politician billed taxpayers Ksh252,000 for travel allowance, car hire and travel for her husband.
She was on June, 17 the talk of town after reports emerged showing that she had spent Ksh200,000 of the tax payers money to fly two of her family members for her ’50th plus GST’ birthday.
“Regarding the media reports about my travel expenses, this was an administrative error involving misunderstanding of travel rules. I’ve raised an invoice from the department to pay the costs of $2139 (approximately Ksh213,900) in full,” she tweeted.
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