David Murathe, the ruling Jubilee Party vice chairperson and a close confidant of President Uhuru Kenyatta has been severally linked to acquiring his wealth fraudulently after being involved in KEMSA scandal.
But according to him, this is not the case.
Jubilee Vice Chairperson David Murathe said that when he first entered parliament as Gatanga MP in 1997, he was broke.
Murathe was reacting to charges that his close relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta has helped him amass fortune over time.
“I have grown up in business. I am not taking advantage of my proximity with the president. I am not in government, I don’t work for the government but I am a businessman,” Murathe stated on KTN News.
He revisited his decision to file for bankruptcy as part of a strategy to protect his businesses which were being targeted by people he owed money.
“I was rich before I went to parliament but when I went to parliament I became broke, I even had to take the receiving order,” he added.
Murathe explained that he had the largest computer company in Kenya, earning him more than Ksh100 million a year.
“At the time, people like Rigathi Gachagua were earning Ksh3,500 as District Officers (DO’s) in Molo,” Murathe quipped.
The Jubilee Vice-Chairperson maintained that he had risen up the ranks, bearing in mind that his father was a hustler who worked for Kenya Bus as a conductor, an inspector and later as a salesman driver.
Previously, Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua had accused him of using his proximity to the President to regain his wealth.
“Today you are a multi-millionaire, you have made all this money yet nobody is asking you how you made it…when the president came to power you made deals with the Chinese,” he said.
