CAPTION: KEMSA Millionaire Richard Ngatia who wants to be the next Nairobi Governor A frustrated youth has badly exposed controversial city tycoon Richard Ngatia over his alarming levels of hostility towards alternative opinions regarding his Nairobi gubernatorial bid.
The Galielo Club owner who also serves as President for Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) has been fingered for being unnecessarily rude to a Nairobian who politely opposed his candidature under the Azimio La Umoja umbrella.
From WhatsApp screenshots forwarded to our news desk, the city voter innocently advised Mr Ngatia to reconsider his aspirations given the recent unanimous endorsement of Westlands Member of Parliament (MP) Tim Wanyonyi by the Luhya community. "From an honest opinion, not because I support BMW, time isn't ripe for you to vie, especially now that Luhya community has decided to back their own. Mundu wa Nyumba, kithaka nikianunga mbwe. (The field smells like wolves)," he was warned.
But the high tempered Megascope Limited CEO - who built his massive wealth through shoddy backdoor means - could not take the criticism.
In his response, the politician rumoured to be well placed as Uhuru and Raila's choice for the city county's top job went full ballistic and unleashed deadly unprintables to the voter. "Go and fck your mother, Malaya wewe," he replied. As if hurling insults was not enough, Ngatia went ahead and blocked the chap from accessing and commenting in any of his supporters' forums. In Nairobi, Ngatia has been fronted by a group of Kikuyu elites under the Mt Kenya Foundation as an exchange gift for their endorsement of Raila Odinga’s presidential aspirations.
His candidature initially elicited mixed reactions from the public as the wealthy magnate with a sprawling business empire stretching beyond the country’s borders became one of the most discussed personalities on social media.
Although he tried hard to rebrand himself as just an ordinary investor in the medical and hospitality industry, the stink from his past sins simply refused to go away.
Most notably, in September last year, a report by the Senate revealed that his Megascope company was part of a rip-off conceived like a criminal enterprise as it was awarded over Sh1 billion contract by KEMSA for the supply of personal protective equipment.
It also got a tender for the supply of SV300 ventilators at Sh165 million and a Sh35 million deal to supply KN95 mask at Sh700 each.
The scandal triggered national outrage that saw the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) summon many top dogs close to power as it sought to uncover the rot.
But to those who have keenly followed Ngatia’s life, this did not entirely come as much of a surprise.
There exists common knowledge to many insiders that over the last decade, Ngatia has been on the hunt to bag most if not all of the lucrative tenders under the Ministry of Health.
Megascope has also been a key provider of healthcare equipment leasing for county governments.
The company supplies, installs, trains personnel, commissions and maintains healthcare equipment.
To put it into better perspective, Megascope maintains 98 per cent of theatre equipment in 219 operating rooms of 115 government hospitals.
His influence within the corridors of power grew so high that when a new Cabinet Secretary in the name of Mutahi Kagwe took over and tried to ‘clean’ up the rotten corridors of the state department by instigating the transfers of officers at Afya House, he faced heavy opposition even from junior staff.
Kagwe would be seen angrily calling out unnamed people at Afya house for being very corrupt but what many did not understand is that the crooked cartel was led by Mr Ngatia himself.