Richard Ngatia is not a new name in controversial world, the President of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) has had to clear his name from several corruption scandals which has now become synonymous with his name.
Known in his cycles as a powerful businessman, Ngatia has been written as one of the close friends to President Uhuru , a position that he has effectively used to win major tenders in healthcare. It is said no big tender in the healthcare sector would go without his cut.
While he’s not refuting claims that his company disappeared with COVID-19 supplies donated to Kenya by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, he’s defending his firm Megascope which was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Covid Millionaires fiasco that arose from the Kemsa scandal.
But away from that, Ngatia has been in and out of court following suits against him by aggrieved KNCCI officials who’ve accused of abuse of office, his micromanaging leadership, corruption, impunity, nepotism as he beams a picture of perfect leadership to the business world unaware of the internal wrangles that have been hitting the KNCCI chambers across the country.
Currently, Ngatia is hanging his hopes on his political connections to evade a possible jail term over contempt of court in a case by KNCCI chairman for Wajir Abdirahman Mohamed Abdille who now wants Ngatia found guilty of disobeying court issued on May 7, 2019 barring him from effecting any changes of chamber officials in Wajir pending the hearing of a case he filed.
With his big man syndrome, it’s not unusual for him to blatantly disobey the law perhaps with the hopes of being able to buy himself out of the justice system which shares a corrupt trait.
In court documents, Justice James Makau had issued temporary injunction barring any changes at the Wajir branch after abortive elections of April 25 2019.
“That on June 19, 2019 the president of KNCCI Richard Ngatia in violation of the court order wrote to the governor of the then Wajir Mohammed Abdi Mohamud purportedly introducing new officials of Wajir county chapter of the chamber,” read the court papers.
Abdille claims that the he remains the incumbent chairman of KNCCI in Wajir by virtue of the court order.
Through lawyer Ochieng Ogutu, Abdille also accused Ngatia of blocking him from accessing the county chamber website by changing the county password and giving it to Abdullahi Abdi Hersi.
Abdille moved to court in July 2019 to block elected officials of the 47 Counties Chapters of the KNCCI from assuming office over alleged electoral malpractices.
In his petition Abdille argues that only five chapters did proper elections while the remaining 42 were riddled with numerous electoral malpractices as ineligible candidates and unlisted members were allowed to take part in the elections.
Abdille stated that Wajir County presented five candidates all vying for the third time for positions they held for the last for two terms contrary to KNCCI electoral rules.
According to the petitioner, the elections created a stalemate and disagreement amongst the 349 listed members hence causing chaos during the elections.
Abdille, sought to have the candidate elected for national director for North Eastern region in the concluded KNCCI elections barred from assuming office and change of officials of Wajir County KNNCI stopped from being made until the suit is heard and determined.
He adds that in February and March 2020 the president of the chamber facilitated the opening of a bank account with National bank Wajir branch for the officials purported elections is being challenged in court in violation of the court order. Ngatia is said to be one of the signatories of the account.
Abdille has further accused the president of the chamber of opening a parallel office for the new officials who election has been challenged in court.
Nairobi Chambers Heist
In a similar pattern of what happened in Wajir, Ngatia kicking out ‘hard nuts’ and illegally replacing them with his loyalists to have free control of the resources, the same fate fell the Nairobi’s arm of the body with the same’Godfather’ featuring.
Initially, Businessman Jimnah Mbaru was the chairman of the Nairobi chamber and he wasn’t in the good books with Ngatia reason being he was too tough and refused to play ball to his ploys, Jimnah whose well monied was not interested in engaging in corrupt deals. Ngatia then orchestrated frustrations that would make Jimnah bolt out of the position as he didn’t want to be dragged into unnecessary wars that would inturn taint his image. As a key investor in different markets, he had his image too to protect.
With Mbaru now out of the way, plans were now in line and Ngatia quickly and without considerations of the law, imposed his stooge and the Vice Chairman Mr Geoffrey Kimani as the Acting Chairman of the Nairobi Chapter. This was done with the aim that, he would be puppeted by The Godfather in the larger embezzlement of funds scheme. Mr. Kimani who by the time of being appointed by the Chamber President to Chair, KNCCI Nairobi County, was not a fully paid up KNCCI Member for 2 Good years, 2019 and 2020, this disqualified from holding the position but it was overlooked as The Godfather wasn’t going to give law s chance to stand in his way.
The next step was taking over the board, a compliant board that wouldn’t say no to the orders and schemes of The Godfather. Mr. Kimani as he was expected, disregarded the KNCCI constitution which required a director to have been an active member of the organization and paying the required fees for at least two years and illegally appointed 7 new directors thereby kicking out the 5 duly elected directors as they were not going to fit into the scheme.
Efforts to resolve the matter internally was not successful since the national resolution committee was well in Ngatia’s grip. Mr. Kimani with the 5 illegitimate directors hurriedly hatched a plan to change the chapter’s banks signatories to completely get the ousted directors out of the way but this faced obstacles. The banks had demanded that the previous directors had to be physically available to authenticate the transfer to the new leadership which was a gang of Mr. Kimani with the blessings of Ngatia.
Ngatia as expected, attempted to use his position as the national chairman of KNCCI and write to the bank to authenticate the illegitimate board but the bank couldn’t hear none of that insisting on the set procedure that required the ousted directors to give their signatures of approval for leadership transfer.
KNCCI chambers under Kimani and Ngatia’s stewardship also became a subject of funds embezzlement after MasterCard Foundation wrote to demand for their grants to the chamber since there was lack of accountability, fraud allegations and books not adding up.
MasterCard Foundation in collaboration with KNCCI started disbursement program of Sh600 million in interest-free loans earmarked for youth and women-led small businesses. This was in the wake of Covid-19 and the fund was meant to help struggling businesses to rise from the adverse effects of the pandemic.
The money allegedly ended in wrong haves and left out majority of the legitimate small scale businesses that it was meant for. It also emerged that the chamber has evaded audit stories and it hasn’t carried any internal or external audit for over 3 years in what could unearth an ugly face of the organization.
Like in Wajir where Abdille was thrown out of office by Ngatia, the Nairobi chamber’s ousted directors also took Ngatia and Kimani to court for the illegal acts. The matter has been out of the public and maybe Ngatia found a way to stop it the Kenyan way.
Gender Discrimination
In 2019, another tussle erupted in Women In Business (WIB) which is within KNCCI, Ngatia in the same style wanted his own choice to take office and this pitted him against Mary Basweti Nyachae who accused of discrimination against women.
Nyachae a Kisii, who was duly elected in the position during the AGM found herself in the receiving end as Ngatia fought to replace her with his choice a Kikuyu lady, Ms Cynthia Nyawira from his tribe.
He frustrated Nyachae by keeping her away from performing key roles, excluding her from meetings and forums basically rendering her a ceremonial chairperson. She even sought legal redress after it emerged that Ngatia had imposed his choice Ms Nyawira into her position and assumed as the “Nairobi County WIB Director” which designation is non-existent in the structure of the Chamber.
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
