Waititu back to prison: Why High Court upheld 12-year sentence

A Sh588 million road contract, companies linked to a governor and his wife, and millions of shillings traced through business accounts have culminated in the return to prison of former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu and fresh money-laundering convictions.

What began as a public tender to upgrade gravel roads in Kiambu County has become a case study in how manipulated procurement documents, questionable financial transactions and interconnected businesses can turn a government contract into a criminal case.

On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Justice Rose Ougo of the Milimani Anti-Corruption High Court upheld Waititu’s convictions and 12-year prison sentence, with an alternative fine of Sh52 million.

“The fines imposed by the court under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act being mandatory fines were properly imposed,” she ruled.

The judge also upheld the order disqualifying the convicted persons from holding public office for 10 years.

In her judgment, Justice Ougo examined how forged academic certificates and manipulated tender requirements were allegedly used to secure a Sh588.2 million road contract for Testimony Enterprises Limited, whose director, Charles Chege Mbuthia, was a close associate of Waititu.

She also examined how money paid by the county government was transferred within days to businesses linked to Waititu and his wife, Susan Wangari Ndung’u, including Saika Two Estate Developers Limited and Bienvenue Delta Hotel on University Way in Nairobi.

Justice Ougo overturned the trial court’s acquittals on money-laundering charges against Waititu, his wife and two others, finding that the prosecution had established a connection between payments made to the contractor by Kiambu County and subsequent transfers to businesses associated with the accused.

“The prosecution established a cogent and unbroken chain of evidence linking the tainted procurement to financial benefit obtained by the first appellant,” she ruled.

The former governor, who was convicted of conflict of interest over the receipt of more than Sh25 million linked to the road tender, was returned to prison following the ruling.

His wife, Wangari, had attended court to follow the appeal against her husband’s 12-year sentence. She had not appealed against her own acquittal on the three money-laundering charges.

However, the State had filed a cross-appeal challenging her acquittal, which Justice Ougo allowed.

The judge set aside the acquittals, convicted Wangari of money laundering alongside her husband and two others, and ordered her remand at Lang’ata Women’s Prison pending sentencing.

Waititu, Wangari, former county chief officer for roads Luka Mwangi Wahinya and businessman Charles Chege Mbuthia are due before the Chief Magistrate’s Court on Monday, October 19, for mitigation and sentencing on the money-laundering offences.

From sand seller to governor

Waititu’s political career began far from the governor’s office.

He started out as a sand seller at Njiru shopping centre, with little political ambition.

Born in 1962, he later studied commerce in India before winning the Njiru ward council seat in 2002. He subsequently became Nairobi’s deputy mayor.

He moved to Parliament through an Embakasi by-election in 2008, following the murder of the sitting MP, Mugabe Were.

He also served as an assistant minister for water and irrigation under President Mwai Kibaki.

In Embakasi, Waititu became known for confrontation. He was often photographed hurling stones at people he accused of grabbing land, earning him the nickname Baba Yao, which he later incorporated into his name.

He lost the Nairobi governorship race to Evans Kidero in 2013 but remained politically active. He moved to Kiambu, his ancestral home, and won the Kabete parliamentary by-election in a landslide in 2015, following the murder of George Muchai.

Waititu then set his sights on the governorship. He defeated William Kabogo in the Jubilee Party primaries despite being labelled an outsider, a Gikuyu slang term used against him. He was elected governor in 2017 and took office in August that year.

He became a prominent figure in the politics of the time, joining other Jubilee-era leaders in holding rallies in support of President William Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid.

Wealth under scrutiny

Waititu’s wealth attracted scrutiny early in his political career.

In 2018, when reports emerged that he was being investigated over property worth Sh1.8 billion, he told supporters he had been wealthy before entering politics.

He said he owned a Mercedes limousine, a Range Rover, a home in Nairobi and 25 lorries before becoming a councillor, adding that bank loans had financed his purchases.

He dismissed the reports as an attempt to settle political scores in the fight against corruption.

The EACC presented a different account. It alleged that between 2015 and 2020, when Waititu was Kabete MP and later governor, he and his wife acquired property, including 18 parcels of land and vehicles, worth up to Sh1.9 billion. The commission also alleged that he awarded tenders to companies that channelled proceeds to him.

In a separate unexplained-wealth case, the High Court ordered the forfeiture of assets valued at approximately Sh131.2 million linked to Waititu and associated parties in December 2025.

The assets included properties in Thindigua valued at about Sh64 million, a Caterpillar machine worth approximately Sh11 million, two motor vehicles, property associated with Wangari valued at about Sh3 million, and property linked to Saika Two Estate Developers Limited valued at approximately Sh52 million.

How the road tender was manipulated

The criminal case centred on a contract worth approximately Sh588.2 million awarded to Testimony Enterprises Limited during the 2017/2018 financial year to upgrade gravel roads to bitumen standards in Thika, Limuru, Gatundu North, Juja and Ruiru.

The courts heard evidence from more than 32 witnesses, alongside financial and forensic material, pointing to manipulation of the tendering process.

Justice Ougo found that the procurement process had been compromised from the outset.

The tender originated from a Cabinet paper that had not been tabled before or approved by the county executive committee.

A county procurement official also raised professional reservations about manipulated evaluation criteria and recommended a re-evaluation.

However, the concerns did not prevent the contract from being awarded to Testimony Enterprises.

Justice Ougo found that Wahinya, then Kiambu County Chief Officer for Roads, Transport, Public Works and Utilities, had abused his office by disregarding procurement safeguards and professional advice before executing the contract and awarding it to Testimony Enterprises.

“Wahinya overruled the procurement safeguards, ignored professional advice and facilitated the award of the contract to a company that had not met the lawful procurement requirements,” Justice Ougo said.

The judge upheld his conviction for abuse of office, finding that he had knowingly acted outside his statutory limits and conferred an undue benefit on the winning company.

Wahinya’s seven-year prison sentence, or an alternative fine of Sh21 million, was also upheld.

The findings against Chege centred on the documents Testimony Enterprises submitted to qualify for the tender.

Justice Ougo examined evidence that the company had submitted forged academic certificates and falsified recommendation and subcontracting documents attributed to China Wuyi Company Limited.

The judge found that the winning bid relied on forged documents. Witnesses from the University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and relevant professional bodies confirmed that academic certificates submitted in support of the bid did not match their records.

Other witnesses said their professional credentials had been used without their consent or authorisation.

The judge found that the documents had been used to mislead tender evaluators and give the company an unlawful advantage.

The evaluation committee also introduced or selectively applied criteria that were not expressly set out in the tender documents, disadvantaging competing bidders.

“The use of forged documents in procurement is not a peripheral irregularity but a material misrepresentation that compromises the integrity of the entire process,” she observed.

Chege’s convictions for fraudulent procurement practices and fraudulent acquisition of public property were upheld, alongside his 11-year prison sentence and a fine of Sh297 million.

Justice Ougo rejected the argument that the case was merely a procurement dispute that should have been handled by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

She also dismissed the argument that the prosecution’s case had collapsed because Kiambu County may have received some road works in return for its payments and that no money had been lost.

“The law is settled that partial or even full performance of a contract procured under illegality does not cleanse or sanitise the illicit proceeds,” she said.

Following the money

The financial trail became one of the most consequential aspects of the case.

After Kiambu County paid Testimony Enterprises for the road contract, EACC investigators traced transfers from the contractor’s accounts to businesses associated with Waititu, his wife and their business dealings.

Banking evidence showed that money moved through Equity Bank accounts before being transferred to other entities, including Saika Two Estate Developers Limited, Bienvenue Delta Hotel and Lake Naivasha Resort Limited.

Between July 2018 and March 2019, more than Sh12 million was transferred to Saika Two Estate Developers, in which Waititu was a director and shareholder.

More than Sh7 million went to Bienvenue Delta Hotel, registered in the joint names of Waititu and his wife. Lake Naivasha Resort Limited received Sh6 million in two instalments of Sh3 million each, on August 27 and September 27, 2018.

The prosecution argued that the timing of the transactions, the relationships between the companies and the absence of convincing supporting records showed that money paid under the disputed tender was being channelled through business accounts.

Justice Ougo agreed that the payments formed part of a wider pattern of transactions involving funds paid to the contractor under the disputed tender.

“The evidence discloses a systematic scheme involving the splitting, re-routing and re-allocation of funds through interconnected corporate and personal entities, the evident purpose of which was to conceal and disguise the origin and ownership of the funds,” she found.

The judge also found that most of the funds received from the contractor by Chege were used in the acquisition of Bienvenue Delta Hotel on University Way in Nairobi. Waititu acquired the hotel through Saika Two Estate Developers for an agreed price of Sh380 million.

The hotel had been owned by Superiorfone Communications Limited, whose director, Rahab Mwihaki Karoki, testified about the sale.

Karoki told the trial court that Waititu had been introduced to her by a friend who said he wanted to buy the hotel.

After negotiations, they agreed on a purchase price of Sh380 million, and ownership was transferred to Saika Two Estate Developers.

The payments were made in instalments. Evidence presented during the trial included a Sh38 million deposit in February 2018.

By October that year, Karoki testified, Waititu had paid approximately Sh351 million, leaving a balance of about Sh29 million.

The court also heard that Testimony Enterprises paid Sh6 million to Lake Naivasha Resort Limited as part of the hotel transaction, with the contractor allegedly acting on Waititu’s behalf.

Land records and banking evidence formed part of the material examined by the court to trace the payments.

Waititu argued that Bienvenue Delta Hotel had provided accommodation, conference facilities and fuel to Testimony Enterprises, which could explain the money it received.

However, Justice Ougo found no invoices, delivery notes or business records to support that explanation.

Waititu also claimed that money paid to Saika Two related to private land transactions involving two parcels.

However, a land registry witness testified that neither Waititu nor Saika Two held a registrable interest in the parcels at the relevant time.

The judge rejected the explanations, finding that the documented transfers could not be separated from the wider procurement scheme.

She further held that corporate structures could not shield the real beneficiaries of transactions and that courts must look beyond the formal ownership of companies to the substance of their dealings.

Why the money-laundering acquittals were overturned

Although the trial court had convicted Waititu, his wife, Wahinya and Chege on several corruption-related charges, it acquitted them of money laundering.

The State challenged those acquittals, arguing that the court had misinterpreted the law and failed to consider the financial trail as a whole.

Justice Ougo agreed with the prosecution that money laundering is a distinct offence and that a person can be prosecuted for it even where that person is also implicated in the underlying offence from which the money originated.

“Money laundering is a distinct and autonomous offence,” Justice Ougo held.

The trial court had reasoned that those involved in the original offences could not also be prosecuted for laundering the proceeds.

Justice Ougo found that reasoning legally flawed, holding that a person could be convicted of both offences where the prosecution proved all the required elements.

She found that the money had been traced from county payments to Testimony Enterprises and then to entities associated with the accused, while the explanations offered did not adequately account for the transactions documented in banking records.

The judge also rejected the argument that the prosecution’s failure to disclose an audit report had prejudiced the defence.

She concluded that the State had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and allowed the cross-appeal against the money-laundering acquittals, entering convictions on the relevant counts.

The matter was referred to the Chief Magistrate’s Court for mitigation and sentencing on Monday, October 19, with the new sentences to run concurrently with the existing terms.

From impeachment to prison

Waititu was charged in 2019 over the tender.

His political career had already suffered a major setback after the Kiambu County Assembly impeached him in December 2019. The Senate upheld his removal on January 29, 2020.

In April 2025, the trial court convicted him of corruptly receiving more than Sh25 million from the contractor and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, with an alternative fine.

He began serving the sentence before being released on a bank guarantee of about Sh53 million as he pursued his appeal.

His lawyers cited diabetes, hypertension and failing eyesight in seeking his release, telling the court that he had been admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Justice Ougo’s decision upheld the convictions and prison term while also allowing the State’s appeal on the money-laundering counts.

Waititu, his wife, Wahinya and Chege have 14 days to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

For a man who built a career on being seen, from stone-throwing in Embakasi to rallies in Kiambu, the latest chapter ends with a court order, a prison transfer and a wife who came to listen.