Ruto calls crisis meeting as DCI seizes passport of close confidant

Deputy President William Ruto hosted a crisis meeting with his close aide at his Harambee House Annexe on Wednesday as it emerged that sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations were closing in on two of his close aides.

Sources at DCI close to the investigation told Kenyan News Day that investigators had recorded a day long statement from one Dr. David Muge, DP Ruto’s shadowy fixer who is based in London and had seized his diplomatic passport.

As Muge’s passport was confiscated by DCI on Tuesday, during a tense appearance at Kiambu Road Headquarters to record statements over the Kerio Valley dam construction scandals, he was also ordered to report to the DCI once per week until instructed otherwise.

Muge’s situation complicates matters for DP Ruto’s who relies on him for most of his overseas business interests. His travel ban is reportedly related to findings by the DCI from their recent trip to Rome Italy to probe payments made to Italian construction company CMC di Ravenna.

Also under radar of DCI is DP Ruto’s aide and long serving personal assistant Farouk Kibet who was also interviewed by DCI sleuths.

London based Muge who holds a diplomatic passport usually reserved for top civil servants is an ever present feature in all of DP Ruto’s foreign missions. He keeps to the background and fixes most of DP Ruto’s expanding business interests outside Kenya.

Both Muge and Kibet are Ruto’s tribesmen and believed to have been deeply involved in the facilitation of billions of shillings in kickbacks paid to Kenya government officials from Italian construction company CMC di Ravenna.

In order to avoid being traced through conventional banking, detectives also believe the two are hiding billions of shillings in local and foreign currency in various residences in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa.

Kibet who owns a number of commercial and residential real estate in Nairobi and Eldoret, was reported to be coordinating the receipt of construction material, fittings and expensive fittings at a warehouses in Eldoret and Mombasa which was used to store and distribute goods to various construction sites including to those that he owns.

The latest developments forced the Deputy President to call a crisis meeting at which new strategies for laundering corruption money were discussed.

Sources from the meeting told Kenyan News Day that the DP praised Majority Leader Aden Duale on his new large scale livestock ranching business which exports meat products to Middle Eastern markets. Such businesses, the DP said, are useful in laundering large sums of commissions received from state contractors.

Urging his close aides to establish similar businesses that could be used for export, DP promised to visit Garissa soon even as scandals engulfed him.