DP Ruto’s staff testify in Echesa arms case
Staff attached to Deputy President William Ruto yesterday narrated in court the events of February 13, last year in which former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa is accused of engaging in a fake security tender deal.
A senior security officer, Nicholas Maiyo, told the court hearing the Sh39 billion fake arms scandal, that the former CS arrived at the office on the fateful day with his guests and claimed he had an appointment with Ruto.
He told Milimani chief magistrate Kenneth Cheruiyot the DP was not in his office when Echesa and his delegation came calling. According to him, the DP was in his Karen office.
“The DP was in Karen when Echesa came but the former CS claimed he had an appointment with my boss on the material day,” he said adding that they confirmed the whereabouts of his boss and established that he was not scheduled to report to the Harambee House Annex office on that day as he was to attend a burial ceremony in Murang’a.
Nonetheless, they ushered Echesa and his visitors to the DP’s visitors room as they made calls to confirm whether their boss would pass by.
“On February 13, 2020, Echesa came in with two white visitors and said he wanted to see the Deputy President and we ushered them to the second floor waiting room,” said Maiyo while being led in his evidence in chief by State Counsel Kennedy Panyako.
He further said the two foreigners were carrying a small bag which they confiscated together with their phones.
They did not, however, confiscate the former CS’s phones, Maiyo said. “We did not take the CS’s phone as we had told him to call my boss to confirm if he is going to see him at his Karen office or Annex office,” explained Maiyo.
The bodyguard also told the court that he did not see the former CS and his visitors sign any contract relating to the Sh39 billion deal at the DP’s second floor waiting room.
He told the court that Echesa was not accompanied by any officer from the Department of Defence (DoD) when they visited the DP’s office.
Maiyo stated that on the material day, he was on duty with two other colleagues including the late DP’s bodyguard Sergeant Kipyegon Kenei, who was mysteriously killed seven days after a fake arms deal was allegedly signed.
The court heard that Kenei is the one who called the VIP reception desk on the second floor asking the officer manning the VIP lift to pick Echesa and his visitors after they were told that Ruto would not show up.
Alert on social media
Maiyo further stated as Echesa and his visitors were leaving, he sought to know from the bodyguards, which was the shortest route to the DP’s Karen office, with one officer advising him to use Langata Road.
Two other staff based at the DP’s office, Askar Nyaboke, a senior receptionist and Corporal Naomi Wanjiku Kinyanjui, who was manning the VIP lifts at the building also narrated to the court the events of the day.
The two told the court they did not know what exactly the three had come to discuss with their boss.
Nyaboke and Wanjiku also confirmed that they have never seen the other co-accused persons charged alongside with Echesa namely Daniel Otieno Omondi alias General Juma, Clifford Okoth Onyango alias Paul and Kennedy Oyoo Mboya as they had never been to the DP’s office.
The witnesses said that 20 minutes after Echesa and his two visitors left the premises, they saw an alert on social media that they had been arrested.
Echesa and his co-accused would later be charged with several counts including conspiracy to commit a felony, making a document without authority, obtaining money by false pretence and attempting to commit a felony in connection with a Sh39 billion arms scandal. The hearing continues today.
