Uhuru should summon Ruto over Echesa’s fake arms tender case, says former Senator

Former Nominated Senator Paul Njoroge has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to summon his deputy William Ruto to explain what he knows about the multibillion fake arms tender deal linked to former Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa.

In a press statement seen by Standard Digital, the former legislator wants the President to summon the DP to provide a comprehensive statement over the issue as the investigators dig deeper to prosecute more suspects.

 Mr Njoroge (above) argues that there are enough indications that the Office of the Deputy President may have participated massively in defrauding the Poland-based Arms Dealer Company.

He notes: “The Head of State, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, should give directives with immediate effect for his deputy William Ruto to be summoned concerning the multibillion shillings fake tender deal…”

“The President should issue orders for Ruto to provide statements before the commencement of thorough investigations so as to seal any loophole on the matter since nothing good will come out if Ruto is not meant to provide statements on the same.”

Besides this is a claim by the former legislator that the Sh39 billion fake arms tender was meant to generate money to fund parallel Building Bridges Initiative meetings organised by the pro-Ruto Tanga Tanga faction.

He alleged that the funds would also be used to fund DP Ruto’s presidential campaigns.

“The President should therefore ban all parallel BBI meetings and ensure only one BBI forum with government projects exist so as to avoid exposing Kenyans to hatred and meaningless propaganda which in turn compromises national peace and unity,” he stated.

Njoroge has gone ahead to urge President Uhuru to make an audacious step by leading DP Ruto’s impeachment. According to him, the office of the DP has failed the integrity test and has left many Kenyans wondering whether it is meant to offer leadership public service or orchestrating corrupt dealings.

“…the president should establish a commission of inquiry which includes the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Ethics and Anticorruption Commission, the Office of the Attorney General and representatives from civil societies to thoroughly investigate and audit Ruto’s sources of funds and the beneficiaries and the results should be made public and be arraigned if found guilty.”

This is after the former CS Rashid Echesa was accused of using The DP’s office to sign fake arms deal in which the Poland-based company accused him of fleecing it Sh11.5 million in ‘consultancy fees.’

The company claimed the former CS had promised to use his influence to help them secure the multi-billion-shilling security tender.

The Standard on Sunday reported that the detectives on Friday raided the Harambee House Annex in a bid to obtain crucial leads.

In the raid, said to have been secretive, the detectives checked into the building, which houses Deputy President William Ruto, to view the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage for the period of interest to them.

DP Ruto answers

Yesterday, DP Ruto commented on the issue blaming it on his political opponents. Ruto said the move is spearheaded by his enemies out to paint him negatively.

“Go for the fraudsters. Leave me to serve the nation,” he tweeted in reaction to the Saturday Standard story naming his office as the centre of the alleged fraud.

“The desperation of my political competitors on their choreographed smear campaign against WSR is evident even for fools (whom we have a shortage for) to see. Just wait and see where this will end up. Washindwe!” he wrote.

On Sunday morning, he said again on Twitter that his office does not procure anything for the state and therefore there was no way that it would be involved in striking fictitious tender. 

He said: “ODP does not procure for any ministry/department. Question: other than 23min in Annex, for months, which government offices involved in the 'tender' did the scammers visit? Did they access DOD? Who facilitated? Who did they meet? Get the truth. Forget the sponsored nonsense in media.”

Echesa is set to appear in court on Monday after spending the weekend in police custody. On Friday, the former Sports CS denied forgery charges on the fraudulent arms deal before the JKIA Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina.

His defence lawyers had denied documents related to the Sh39 billion case were recovered in his car. The prosecution requested the court to grant his detention for 21 days to allow the investigators to travel to the US to ascertain the authenticity of the documents. However, his lawyers opposed the move saying that their client did not warrant detention.

He was arrested alongside Daniel Otieno Omondi, Kennedy Oyoo Mboya, and Clifford Okoth.

He was arrested on Thursday by the Special Service Unit on road in Nairobi, handcuffed him and drove him to the DCI headquarters for grilling.