Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi has ordered the whip to be cracked on all officials implicated in the outrageous embezzlement of KSh 1.5 billion from the famous Ekeza Sacco.
The no-nonsense Matiangi spoke during the Kenya Police Sacco annual delegates conference on Wednesday, March 6 where he assured Kenyans the government would not sit back and watch management of savings and credit companies engage in mass theft from their trusted clients.
According to the CS, Ekaza Sacco officials would be brought to book once investigations were concluded. “Rogue officials mismanaging funds in the co-operative movement will be prosecuted after the conclusion of investigations,” he said.
Ekeza Sacco, which is very prominent in Kiambu county took its clients on a panic spree after an explosive embezzlement scandal. David Gakuyo, chairman of the shamed Ekeza Sacco, also doubles up as a preacher.
The Sacco’s chairman David Ngari, alias Gakuyo was at the centre of the controversy and it is believed he transferred members’ money to his personal accounts. Following complaints that the Sacco was sharing office space with Gakuyo’s real estate company, Ekeza temporarily had its licence revoked in 2018.
Gakuyo had at one point made a last-ditch attempt to sell his hotels and land attached to the real estate company but his attempts was quelled following the intervention of the Commissioner of Cooperatives.
Boasting over 78,000 members reports that the Sacco was facing a corruption scandal hit clients hard, with Gakuyo blaming the company’s woes on a witch hunt from some big political figures in the county. He pointed an accusing finger particularly at former governor William Kabogo and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria who he claimed were threatened by his growing influence in the county.