Uhuru's kin denies involvement in Afya House scam
What you need to know:
- Sundales won the Sh41 million tender in December last year and was paid in June 2016.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin who has been named in the Sh5 billion questionable transactions at the Ministry of Health has blamed Cord leader Raila Odinga for falsely condemning her and her company.
Ms Kathleen Kihanya said she is ready to be investigated, but argued that Mr Odinga’s utterances at a press conference on Friday in which he said the scam was “President Kenyatta’s scandal", were grievous.
“For someone to cast doubt on our integrity for unnecessary political mileage and exciting the public on false allegations is totally unacceptable especially when it is a person of Raila’s standing,” she said.
According to Ms Kihanya, Sundales International - where she, Nyokabi Muthama and Mr Samson Kamiri are directors - applied for a tender to supply "various emergency nutrition commodities” in November 2015.
Sundales won the Sh41 million tender in December last year and was paid in June 2016.
“We call for relevant investigative bodies to prioritize this investigation and get to the bottom of it with the urgency required,” Ms Kihanya said at a press conference at Jacaranda hotel.
“Those found guilty of committing any crime or corruption, without exception, should be charged and jailed.”
But when hurled with questions from reporters, Ms Kihanya rose from her chair and walked out of the room.
She said the three-minute statement she had read will be distributed to the journalists present.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I called this press conference and I have told you what I wanted to say,” she told the team of reporters on her way out.
When asked if her company was also aligned to those that were providing the Sh38 billion medical equipment to counties, she responded with an emphatic “no”.
The managing director also rubbished claims that payment for her firm's services was fast-tracked due to her relationship to President Kenyatta.
“It is deeply distressing that in a time when entrepreneurship should be encouraged, individuals can be intimidated out of doing business and creating jobs, by the fear that someone may attack them for political mileage,” she said.
Ms Kihanya worked with President Kenyatta since his failed presidential bid in 2002 where she managed his campaign.
She later helped manage the President's Constituency Development Fund in 2007 when he was Gatundu South MP.
In October last year, President Kenyatta appointed her as a board member of the Tourism Regulatory Authority.
Ms Kihanya worked at Mumias Sugar Company from 1998 to 2001, and had a stint at the Naivasha-based Keroche breweries in 2008.
