Businessman and former Embakasi East MP aspirant Francis Mureithi Wambugu has been arrested for allegedly defrauding an Eritrean of Sh300 million between April and November 2016.
According to the Parklands Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, David Chebii, Wambugu is expected to be charged in court on Wednesday with three charges of obtaining money by false pretences, uttering false documents and money laundering.
Mureithi is said to have told the complainant, Haile Menkerios, that he would help him secure a tender at the Department of Defence (DoD) headquarters for the supply of foodstuff.
According to the DCI, Mureithi issued the foreigner with a Local Purchase Order (LPO) to supply sugar, maize, rice and beans to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
As a result, Mureithi, through his company Doc Find Ltd, together with other proxy companies obtained a total of Sh300 million.
The other companies have been identified as Wina Trading Ltd, New Research Path Company, Hammond Agencies and Sembel Trading.
The money was wired to the companies’ accounts on diverse dates between April 29 and November 3, 2016, by Menkerios who is a retired Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UN office of the Africa Union in Addis Ababa.
“We launched investigations and established that the complainant was indeed swindled of the cash on the pretext that he was able to secure more contracts,” Chebii said.
Chebii said they were still tracking down two other Mureithi’s accomplices identified as Francis Mwaura Githienya and Hussein Osman Said.
In 2017, Mureithi, a first-time political aspirant, was nominated to fly the Jubilee Party flag in Embakasi East Constituency after beating four other aspirants including the then MP, ODM’s John Ogutu Omondi.
He was however defeated by Babu Owino who amassed 46,587 votes, beating his close rival by a margin of 4,334.
Mureithi got 42,253 votes in the parliamentary election.
