Overnight millionaires club: Sagwe, Kago, Kabura and the Ngiritas

The latest National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) multibillion shilling scandal has roped in more than 27 people who are now facing up to seven separate counts of criminal charges.

The unlikely millionaires either took advantage of a weak system, had connections in high places or were simply beneficiaries of a well-oiled state of corruption.

Among them is one Fredrick Sagwe who rose from the front office to a millionaire overnight.

Little known Fredrick Sagwe is a man with a modest job but immense wealth.

Sagwe works as a Front Office manager at NHIF with a monthly salary of about Ksh.150,000. He is said to have bought 8 houses in Athi River at Ksh.160 million.

He also owns a chain of car and carpet cleaning business in Nairobi valued at Ksh.50 million and he said to have held a wedding worth Ksh.25 million.

Sagwe lives in a house worth Ksh.40 million at Green Park Estate along Mombasa Road and owns several high end vehicles.

Fredrick Sagwe is not the only one, just last week, the Court froze Property and Assets belonging to Ngirita’s family in an attempt to recover close to half a billion shillings stolen from NYS.

The Ngiritas perhaps epitomised the plunder in NYS 2, where they were paid Ksh.465 million within 22 months for supplying ‘air’.

The family owns multi-million properties in various parts of the country and three cars.

The Asset and Recovery Agency has obtained orders stopping any of the family members from selling the property believed to have been acquired through proceeds of graft

The list doesn’t end there,  in 2016 a driver linked to NYS 1 scandal was at pains to explain how Ksh.346 million was wired through his accounts.

John Kago, a former Driver in a local bank owned Property worth millions in Nairobi, ran a high-end vehicle leasing Company with Range Rovers and Mercedes S350.

The money is believed to have been wired to his account at the height of NYS 1 scandal by suspects Ben Gethi and Josephine Kabura who Kago claims to have met in the banking hall and agreed on a soft loan worth Ksh.60 million.

Kabura herself was at the time a hairdresser.

Josephine Kabura, shocked the nation when she confessed to having carried out money in sacks, Kabura who later penned a contentious affidavit that implicated the then Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru allegedly made more than Ksh.1.6 Billion from NYS deals.

Kabura who was previously a hairdresser owned 20 Companies all of which had business dealings with NYS.

The Assets Recovery Agency is now in a series of Court battles to have suspects’ assets frozen until the cases are heard and determined.