Duale challenges Gachagua over business ownership allegations

Health Cabinet Secretary, Aden Duale, has publicly challenged former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to provide evidence supporting his allegations that Duale owns shares in Convergence Network Limited.

In a statement released on Tuesday, March 31, Duale claimed Gachagua has repeatedly refused to produce a CR12 document from the Business Registration Service, which lists the shareholders and directors of the company.

“The CR12 would instantly reveal the shareholders and directors of Convergence Network Limited, the company he claims I own 17% of. It would settle the matter definitively. Yet Gachagua has refused,” Duale stated.

He accused Gachagua of relying on ethnicity rather than verifiable evidence to support his claims.

Duale said Gachagua’s assertion that Mr Abdullahi Abdi Sheikh, a director of Konvergenz Network Solutions, is Duale’s proxy is based solely on their shared Somali ethnicity.

“That is the entire 'proof.' In Gachagua's narrow worldview, any Somali business person succeeding in Kenya must automatically be a front for another Somali politician,” Duale said.

According to Duale, Konvergenz Network Solutions was incorporated in 2014, and Abdullahi Abdi Sheikh owns a 5% stake through registered and traceable shareholding structures.

He emphasised that there are no hidden interests or proxies involved.

Duale also referenced an earlier incident in January when Gachagua, speaking at a Kiambu church, allegedly linked a mall in Eastleigh to crimes in the United States.

Duale said the $100 million project was conceived in 2009 and constructed years before the case Gachagua cited.

“His message was clear: Somali wealth is criminal wealth,” he said.

The Cabinet Secretary criticised what he described as Gachagua’s tribal politics, saying it undermines Kenya’s democratic processes.

He pointed to a Sh104 billion tender for the digitisation of the healthcare system by the Social Health Authority, which involved a Safaricom-led consortium including Konvergenz and Apeiro Ltd.

Duale said the process was a restricted tender under Section 114A of the Public Procurement Act, approved by the National Treasury, evaluated by a constituted committee, and recently upheld by the High Court.

While acknowledging procedural issues flagged by the Auditor General, Duale said no court had found evidence of fraud, bad faith, or hidden ownership in the procurement process. He called on Gachagua to provide documentation if he believes wrongdoing occurred.

“If I truly own shares in Convergence Network or any government contractor, Gachagua should produce the documentation. Name the shelf companies. Trace the money. But do not insult the intelligence of Kenyans by substituting a document search with ethnic profiling,” Duale said.

Duale concluded that Gachagua’s political strategy relies on division along ethnic lines, a tactic he said has been used previously against different communities.