Bribed Kenya media in conspiracy of silence over Humphrey Kariuki criminal case -

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Bribed Kenya media in conspiracy of silence over Humphrey Kariuki criminal case

Is Kariuki’s alcoholic beverage manufacturing plant secretly back in production?

A conspiracy of silence has engulfed local mainstream media in Kenya over the tax evasion and forgery case involving recently apprehended fugitive billionaire Humphrey Kariuki.

Kenyan News Day also received reports that the Africa Spirit Limited based in Thika which was shutdown by authorities last week could already be on its way back to full production after behind the scene lobbying by influential Humphrey Kariuki.

Through Nation Media’s Mutuma Mathiu, Kariuki has been able to bribe senior editors in almost all media houses to suppress a story on his arrest and subsequent questioning by CID officers at Kileleshwa Police Station.

Kenyan News Day independently established that Kariuki’s aides had secretly reached out to NMG’s Mathiu and made an irresistible offer.

Mathiu in turn reached out to fellow editors such as Wachira Waruru of Royal Media, Standard Group Editorial Director Joseph Odindo and the Director of Convergence at the Star William Pike to whom he passed the message from the billionaire ‘with a small motivational fee’.

Our source added Kariuki had promised to see to it that the editors who comply and give news of his arrest a total blackout shall be individually rewarded handsomely.

Similarly, billionaire Kariuki has paid hush money to investigative teams from DCI, KRA and Anti-Counterfeight Agencies to stop them issuing public statements on the forgery and tax evasion racket that led to his arrest.

Whereas DCI arrested senior employees of Africa Spirit Limited and even applied in court to be allowed to hold them longer, no such treatment has been applied to Kariuki himself who is the proprietor of the plant. His status as a prisoner is also unknown.

Last week when IG Boinett and DCI personally led raids at Africa Spirit Limited based in Thika, not only did each agency release a public statement, they went as far inviting scorers of journalists to record every aspect of the raid.

The following day Nation, Standard, the Star an Citizen all had splashed the story along with the picture of Kariuki whom they claimed was reclusive and had gone underground. The Nation even carried several sensational feature articles focusing on Kariuki and how he had accumulated his wealth.

Today, hardly two weeks later, all newspapers and all investigating agencies have gone silent on the Kariuki saga despite his recent arrest and reports suggest there are activities going on within the shut-down Africa Spirit Limited plant, meaning they could already be back in production.

In a diversionary story, the Nation last week revealed detectives questioning billionaire Kariuki over tax evasion were taken by surprise after it emerged that he is a citizen of Cyprus. 

So far only Kenyan News Day has exusively carried the story of his arrest with our ICT support reporting attempts to hack into our servers over the weekend.