Governor with jinxed big media moments

Peter Ndambiri’s big bursts into the national media have been jinxed. In just 16 months he has twice graced news headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Queerly, in both cases Mr Ndambiri has had to deal with the police with claims of kidnap being a key reference of investigations.

The Kirinyaga Deputy Governor’s latest negative media portrayal came this week after his nude video popped up on social media platforms and went viral.

The circumstances under which the video emerged on Tuesday evening remain unclear even though Mr Ndambiri claims he was a victim of kidnap and extortion.

In 2017, the realtor-turned-politician also hit news headlines for negative reasons.

Police arrested him at gunpoint for allegedly kidnapping a woman who was in his campaign team for the Mwea parliamentary seat and whisked him off to Kerugoya Police Station where he spent a night.

The dramatic arrest happened as he headed out for a weekend campaign meeting amid claims of his involvement in the kidnapping of a Ms Jane Njeri Mworia on December 7, 2016 in Ngurubani town over alleged disappearance of Sh22,000 meant to fund a youth seminar in the constituency.

Mr Ndambiri is claimed to have given the money to the woman for the seminar, but she never accounted for it. The matter was later resolved. Mr Ndambiri lost the seat.

Months later, Mr Ndambiri, 58, is back in the news battling effects of the embarrassing nude video that has kept the mainstream and social media platforms awash with speculation.

In the video, the deputy governor is seen being assaulted by unknown people alongside a woman. Both are naked.

The humiliating footage has elicited mixed reactions from the public with some quarters urging him to resign for demeaning his position. Others have defended Mr Ndambiri saying he was a victim of blackmail.

In a statement to newsrooms, the deputy governor maintained that his tribulations were perpetrated by blackmailers.

“I would like to take this opportunity to get ahead of the video and story in circulation.

“Right now what matters most is my family and my people of Kirinyaga who look up to me for guidance. To them, I say sorry,” he said.

He claimed his tribulations began on February 10, 2018 when he went shopping for property in Thika town and “someone well known to me enticed me about a good property she was disposing on behalf of a client.”

The father of three alleges that his caller was a woman known to him and who resides in Nairobi’s Membley Estate.

“I had known this lady for about a year and I knew she was in the property sector. I had no reason to believe that she was not genuine since several of my friends had recommended me to her,” he says.

READ: Suspects to pay victims for lighter sentences

Mr Ndambiri further says that on February 12, he set off towards Thika to meet the woman who had requested for a meeting at a local hotel before proceeding to view the property.

He says they set off riding in his car and while at the road leading to Makongo, a personal car blocked their way, two men came out brandishing guns and he was commandeered into a hotel room.

“They then forced me to confess that the lady was my concubine as they recorded the scene. I was ordered to pay Sh10 million as protection fee if I did not want the tape to be released to the public,” Mr Ndambiri claimed, adding that he paid off some cash to the gang.

The deputy governor, who has since recorded a statement at the Thika Police Station, says he received numerous reminders to pay the remaining amount but declined.

“Well, I do not want to get into the orgy details of the incident since it is already under police investigation.

‘I paid some amount, and then paid another amount and I came to realise that I was being recruited into a permanent scheme of paying up in the name of protecting myself from public ridicule. I decided not to pay any further amount,” he says.

“It is better controlling the damage of the video than remaining a permanent victim of extortion. I today feel better that the video is out and I am off the extortionists’ hook,” he says.