Ms Margaret Wanja Muthui first thrust into the limelight in 2019 when she successfully petitioned the court to reverse her deployment from her plum job at a roads agency.
Then, Ms Muthui argued that she had risen over the years to become the senior procurement officer at Kenya Rural Roads Agency (KeRRA) when she was suddenly transferred to the office of Performance Management and Coordination under the Presidency.
According to Ms Muthui, she was being moved to an office where she had no expertise and the main reason for her removal was after she questioned a tender, which she felt had been overpriced by Sh1 billion.
She argued that in her opinion, questioning the award caused a lot of problems after which she received communication from the PS Ministry of Transport asking her to provide a full report on the tender and options that would cure the anomalies and allow the tender to proceed.
Ms Muthui, who was employed by KeRRA as a procurement officer in October 2009, stated how she had worked diligently and subsequently promoted in December 2011.
All was well until February 2017 when she got a letter deploying her to the Performance Management and Coordination under the Presidency.
She said barely two weeks later, her employer received the directive from the Ministry redeploying her under the guise that she was an expert on low volume seal roads contracts.
Ms Muthui, however, said the deployment letter did not indicate the range of her duties at the new office yet she had no idea of the function of her purported deployment.
In a judgment in February 2019, Justice Hellen Wasilwa halted her transfer, saying the Ministry of Transport had no business directing KeRRA to deploy her to the ministry.
She maintained that her deployment was nothing short of a witchhunt by the powers that be as she is being victimised for doing her duties as set out in her appointment letter.
“Indeed the decision was illogical because the employer of the Petitioner is the 2nd Respondent (KeRRA) and not the 1st Respondent (Ministry),” the judge said.
Second transfer
Ms Muthui was back in court early this year after she was transferred for the second time and Employment and Labour Relations Judge Maureen Onyango, suspended the decision, pending the determination of her case.
In the new case, Ms Muthui said she was being redeployed for raising questions over multibillion-shilling roads construction tenders.
She was probably not aware that all these years of fighting to remain at KeRRA would have challenges.
What has now emerged is that she, the deputy director at the roads agency, could have been a beneficiary of kickbacks from roads tenders.
In a scandal unearthed by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), Ms Muthui is accused of acquiring multimillion-shilling properties in a span of three years, in what has been termed as proceeds of crime.
Apart from fighting to remain at KeRRA, Ms Muthui now has to fight a petition by the ARA seeking to forfeit the property, including 11 apartments, which she allegedly acquired for Sh264 million in cash when the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) withdrew the old Sh1,000 banknote in a bid to tackle illicit financial flows.
Proxies
In the petition certified as urgent, the State agency says Ms Muthui bought 11 apartments in Kileleshwa for Sh264 million in cash between July and September 24, 2019. She acquired another 12 units in a Ruaka flat in June 2019 for Sh15 million.
The agency says Ms Muthui allegedly purchased the apartments herself or through proxies and a company whose directors were mostly her relatives or proxies during the demonitisation period. Documents filed in court showed that she had earlier in March 2019 acquired a flat of 12 units in Ruaka for Sh15 million.
Ms Muthui later acquired a house in Nairobi and land in Dagoretti and registered them in the names of other people.
On Tuesday, Justice James Wakiaga allowed the freezing of Sh94 million held in several accounts and registered under different people, pending the determination of the petition.
Justice Wakiaga also ordered the chief lands registrar to register caveats against each of the Sh374.5 million apartments and home in a move aimed at stopping their transfer or sale.
The judge also ordered a preservation of rental income from all the apartments and the houses.
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