It Wasn't Me! Gachagua Exposes Uhuru's Key Aide For Making Sh1.59bn Request For DP's Office

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has denied that he made a request of Sh1.59 billion to the treasury immediately after the August 9, polls.

Addressing the media on Sunday, Gachagua said the amount in question was requested by former State House Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua, a key official in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's tenure.

He said Mbugua made the move after colluding with Yatani to deprive the office of the cash in the past years.

"Former Cabinet Secretary Yatani and Mbugua had cut off funds to the Office of the Deputy President for four years under the instructions of Uhuru Kenyatta," he said.

"When Ruto became president, the two were embarrassed and sought to undo the damage of what they had done. The previous year, they cut the budget from Sh4 billion shillings and they cut it by Ksh1.5 billion which they tried to reinstate."

Yatani revealed that immediately after the August 9 elections, he was prevailed upon to disburse Sh1.59 billion to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's office.

In a statement on Wednesday, Yatani said the request was made in line with Article 223 of the Constitution which empowers the Treasury CS to release funds under special circumstances without parliamentary approval.

"It included Sh300 million for cars and Sh300 million for hospitality, a request that I did not grant in full but considered an amount of Sh500 million due to the financial constraints we had at the time," Yatani said.

"This information like all others is in the public domain and I have nothing to hide because of the nature of operations at National Treasury."

He made the revelations while responding to accusations labelled against him by the controller of the budget Margaret Nyakang'o.