Former Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority Director General Daniel Kiptoo Bargoria is facing fresh scrutiny after four employees of Tarita Group Limited accused him of turning an accounts reconciliation meeting at the company’s Eldoret offices into a night of detention, beatings, threats and forced property transfers over a disputed Sh96 million.
The meeting, which was held at Tarita Centre in Eldoret on the last Saturday of June, had reportedly been called to review company books dating back to December 2025, but what started as a financial reconciliation session later turned into a violent confrontation after questions were raised over money said to be missing from the firm.
Police records in the matter show that the meeting stretched late into the night before the employees were allegedly told that Sh96 million was missing and that they had to either produce the money or face deadly consequences.
The four workers claim they were held inside the building for more than 12 hours, beaten by masked men, stripped, threatened and forced to disclose personal bank balances as pressure mounted on them to surrender cash and property to the company.
One of the victims, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear for his family and businesses, said the men who attacked them stuffed their mouths to stop them from screaming as the ordeal continued through the night.
The victim claimed Kiptoo told the employees that the reconciliation process had become a back and forth affair and that the four of them would have to raise the money being demanded, before four heavily built masked men entered the room and each took charge of one employee.
According to the victims’ accounts, the masked men beat them indiscriminately, stripped them and forced them to reveal personal assets as the company pushed to recover money it claimed had disappeared from its books.
Documents linked to the dispute show that Tarita Group was also seeking to recover a larger exposure from one of the victims, including a two acre parcel of land, three plots and a commercial hub, with records in the matter suggesting the company’s exposure may have gone beyond the Sh96 million captured in the police report.
One of the workers said a deed of transfer was printed and placed before him after hours of beatings and threats, forcing him to sign documents surrendering property in a desperate attempt to survive the night.
The employees were also reportedly ordered to call their spouses to witness the transfers, but that demand became the opening that helped trigger their rescue after one victim secretly alerted his wife to come with a lawyer and police officers.
The victim said the most painful part of the ordeal was being stripped and beaten in front of a close relative, saying the humiliation was worse than the physical injuries because it left him feeling helpless in front of someone who had come to save him.
Police officers who responded to the distress call later arrested six suspects identified as Alfred Too, Edwine Gichia, Everline Choge, Joseph Njuguna, Stephen Ngigi and Martin Kamau.
Turbo Sub County Police Commander Patrick Wekesa confirmed that investigations are ongoing, although the matter is said to be moving slowly amid pressure for an out of court settlement.
The case now places Kiptoo back under public attention only months after his exit from EPRA following his arrest in the fuel importation scandal, where senior energy officials were investigated over claims of manipulated fuel stock data and irregular emergency procurement.
Reports from the April fuel scandal said detectives recovered more than Sh100 million in cash from suspects’ homes during the raids, a detail that raised public anger at a time when Kenyans were already struggling with high fuel prices and questions over how public officials handled the energy sector.
Kiptoo later resigned from EPRA alongside other senior energy officials as investigations into the fuel importation saga continued, marking a dramatic fall for a man who had been one of the most powerful figures in Kenya’s petroleum regulation space.
The Tarita Group dispute has also revived questions around the company’s ownership structure, with Business Registration Service records showing that all 999 shares in Tarita Group Limited are owned by Tarita Group Mauritius Limited, a company registered in Port Louis, Mauritius.
Alfred Cheruiyot Too is listed as the sole director of the Kenyan company, although records show he does not hold shares in the firm.
Kiptoo’s name has previously appeared in court proceedings involving Tarita Group and family land, after the High Court stopped him and the company from putting up a petrol station, greenhouses and other permanent developments on land registered to his late father, Barnabas Tuitoek Bargoria.
His sister, Loise Cherop, had moved to court claiming Kiptoo was linked to Tarita Group and that the offshore company had used the Bargoria family postal address in filings with the Business Registration Service.
Cherop argued that the use of the family address pointed to an attempt to hide behind an offshore company and lock other beneficiaries out of their father’s estate, claims Kiptoo denied while admitting he was in possession of the disputed land.
The High Court said Cherop had placed enough material before the court to suggest Kiptoo may have intermeddled with the estate, although the final determination will come from the ongoing succession case in Eldoret.
Messages linked to the latest dispute show that tensions between Kiptoo and one of the employees had been building before the Eldoret meeting, with one exchange showing Kiptoo sending locations of properties associated with the employee before warning him that trouble was coming.
Hours after the four employees were rescued, representatives of Tarita Group reported a case of stealing by servant at Eldoret Police Station, shifting the dispute into a criminal complaint even as the workers insisted they had been tortured and forced to sign away property.
One of the victims rejected the theft claims and said the company should have allowed proper scrutiny of the books, arguing that part of the financial exposure was linked to the fuel subsidy period, which affected normal trading and complicated the company’s accounts.
He also said he had personal business interests outside employment, including real estate, and argued that owning property should not automatically be treated as evidence of stealing from the company.
Medical documents from the aftermath of the incident show that one of the victims presented at hospital with swelling around both eyes, the face and neck, while examination revealed bruises on the forehead and an injury on the right ear.
A scan also showed a small area on the front left part of the brain that appeared slightly different from normal tissue, although the finding was described as subtle, with the major concern being clots on the tissues of the head.
The former EPRA boss had not publicly responded to the claims by the time the matter came into public attention.
What began as a company accounts dispute has now grown into a bigger story touching on public office, private business, offshore ownership, unexplained wealth claims, family land battles and the use of violence in corporate disputes.
For Kiptoo, the Tarita Centre claims land at a dangerous moment because they come soon after his forced exit from the energy sector, where the fuel importation scandal had already placed his name in the middle of one of Kenya’s most sensitive public money controversies.
For the four employees, the matter is now about more than Sh96 million because they say they were detained, beaten, stripped, humiliated and forced to sign away property while those accused of attacking them remain close enough to make them fear for their lives.
