Former Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has made explosive, unsubstantiated allegations linking President William Ruto to the late Zimbabwean businessman and socialite Wicknell Chivayo.
Speaking during an engagement with clergy in Boston, in the United States, Gachagua claimed Chivayo – who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday – had been holding money on President Ruto’s behalf and was part of an alleged plot to influence Kenya’s 2027 General Election. He provided no documentary evidence for either claim.
Gachagua told the gathering that he knew about the alleged dealings from his time as deputy president.
“There was a business partner of his, a crook from Zimbabwe called Chivayo. This man, because I was his deputy, so I know, they were doing business together,” he said.
He went on to allege that Chivayo was used to launder and keep large sums of foreign currency for the President.
“He is a man he has been using for money laundering. He gets money in dollars; that man comes with a plane, lands on a private airstrip and takes the money to keep for him,” Gachagua claimed.
He further alleged that at the time of his death, Chivayo was holding more than KSh1.5 trillion belonging to Ruto.
“The man has his money, over 1.5 trillion. The man is dead, his wife is dead, he doesn’t know where to begin,” he said.
Gachagua also sought to link Chivayo to an alleged scheme to interfere with the 2027 polls. He described the businessman as “an expert in stealing elections” who had been “burglarising elections in Africa” and claimed he was to act as a local agent for an unnamed South Korean company whose technology was intended for use in the election.
According to Gachagua, tender specifications had been tailored to favour the South Korean firm, with Chivayo lined up as the intermediary.
“So this guy was a local agent for those fellows. So this is the man he was to use to steal the vote. The guy is dead,” he claimed.
Chivayo, who was closely associated with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, died alongside his wife Lucy Muteke and three others when their helicopter crashed in the Marondera Rural area, east of Harare, on Wednesday evening.
Their remains were charred beyond recognition, forcing authorities to comb the veld to recover them.
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