How a kind-hearted Kibaki helped settle guard's hospital bill

David Wambugu was in the same car as the former President on December 3, 2002. [File, Standard]

The story of former President Mwai Kibaki’s kind heart can be told in a rather intriguing court battle between his former bodyguard and the National Police Service Commission.

David Wambugu was in the same car as the former President on December 3, 2002 when an accident occured at the Machakos junction. 

Records say Kibaki ordered that State House foots Wambugu’s hospital bills, something which the guard claimed did not go down well with his bosses.

Wambugu lamented that he was forced out of work over State House involvement in his bills.

According to Wambugu’s court papers filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court, the goodwill passed to him by the president turned into an ugly trajectory after his bosses got wind of it.

Wambugu said that he was forced to take an early retirement.

“Due to the close relationship and trust that the former President had in the petitioner, he offered to personally settle the medical bills through a State House account known as State House recurrent account. This was his personal commitment and so this means that the petitioner had direct contact with him,” court papers read.

Wambugu, a former GSU officer, claimed that his then police boss King’ori Mwangi got furious about the helping hand.

“Upon learning of the direct contact that the petitioner had with the former president and the clearance of the petitioner’s medical bills, the second respondent (Mwangi) was enraged and claimed that the petitioner was extorting money from State House without following protocol,” court papers filed by RA Onchuru and Co Advocates read.

Mr Mwangi, on the other hand, indicated that Wambugu lost a gun under mysterious circumstances.

Wambugu, in a rebuttal, said that the claim by his former boss is untrue.

He claimed that on January 20, 2005, at 4pm, he was picked from his house at Highridge and taken to Mwangi’s office where he was questioned about an envelope containing his medical bills that he had given to a colleague to take to the former president’s secretary.

The court record read that Mwangi, in fury, told him to wait for dismissal. He then sought help from former police commissioner Hussein Ali. 

“He promised to look into it later but never did,” Wambugu claimed.