MP Gideon Mwiti Irea denies role in Sh780m pyramid scheme

A Member of Parliament who investigators have linked to a pyramid scheme which collapsed with over Sh780 million in members contributions on Monday disowned the company he allegedly used to receive the money.

Imenti Central MP Gideon Mwiti Irea told a trial court in Milimani, Nairobi, that he was not behind the Kenya Business Community Sacco which the government shut down for engagement in illegal banking business.

The MP was defending himself before a magistrate’s court in a case of “cheating” where 12 complainants claim he swindled them of millions of shillings while acting as the Sacco general manager.

“My role was purely consultancy… I was a businessman in Nairobi in 2004 running a company called Kenya Akiba Micro Finance Limited, I was only consulted on regulatory by-laws being a lobbyist for a law seeking to regulate micro-finance institutions and this climaxed with the enactment of the Micro-Finance Act 2006,” Mwiti said.

In the case, the prosecution says that Mr Mwiti cheated and induced 12 complainants to deposit their money under the guise that they would earn a monthly interest at the rate of 16 per cent.

The court was told that the offences were committed between January 12 and July 26, 2007.

He denied participating in the registration of the Sacco, whose members took him to court, and dismissed the case as “malicious.”

A government task force formed to investigate the scam in 2007 linked the MP to Kenya Business Community Sacco, Kenya Multi-Purpose and Kenya Akiba Micro Finance which was recently awarded Sh2 billion for wrongful closure after the MP went to court seeking damages.  

The prosecution said the MP was “feigning ignorance” about the operations of the Kenya Business Community Sacco but he objected saying the only contact he had with it was when he was consulted during its formative days. “It is a registered entity and its officials are known,” he said.

Prosecutor Robert Kyaa suggested to Mwiti that he knew the people accusing him well as they invested in the scheme and entered into contract with “the organisation” officials, but he denied ever making contact with the complaints.

“I did not see them... I was not party to the day to day running of the business and I did not sign any of the investment contracts,” the MP said.

He said the people named in the case were “total strangers” to him while he only came to meet others in court after his arrest in 2007.