Robbery incident that broke spirit of President Uhuru’s aide

President Uhuru Kenyatta

As President Uhuru Kenyatta considers the notice of resignation from his most trusted political adviser Nancy Gitau, details have emerged of last minute events that could have pushed her to throw in the towel.

The Standard on Saturday has established that 48 hours before she informed the President of her decision to quit government, Gitau’s private offices in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa area were broken into.

Among the items stolen were computers, television sets and safes where crucial documents are kept.

One of the members of staff in her office, who spoke to The Standard on Saturday, said the robbery was discovered on the morning of Saturday June 16. “When we reported to work, we found everything scattered in the compound.

The main door had been literally pulled off while safes, computers, television sets and a few other things were missing. We immediately informed the boss about the matter. Police arrived at the scene shortly after we reported,” the staff member said.

Yesterday, Gitau said she was shocked at the incident, the first ever to happen in any of her offices since she joined the government.

Besides the vicious power struggles she has been embroiled in within the government, the burglary, she said, gave her the impression that someone could be targeting her.

“It is true that my office was broken into on Saturday. That is all I can tell you for now because the matter is currently under active investigations by authorities. It was quite shocking. I am yet to understand why anybody would go to the extent of breaking into my office. What do they want from me?” she said.

Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro said that investigations into the matter have  began and police have already arrested one suspect.

Muhoro said police are in hot pursuit of a few other suspects. He did not disclose how many more suspects detectives are chasing, neither did he say the specific area where the suspect in custody was arrested.

“That matter is under investigation. I can confirm to you that we have already arrested one suspect in connection with the robbery. We are still pursuing a few more suspects. I do not wish to make further comments because this is a matter still under investigation,” he said.

Police believe that although some items unrelated to Gitau’s duties such as like kitchen cutlery were stolen, the attackers could have stolen them to create the impression of normal thuggery. Mrs Gitau is highly credited for the management of President Kenyatta’s election in 2013. She gave the resignation notice at the height of vicious power battles within Jubilee, as the coalition struggles to put together a single Jubilee Party (JP), to be President Kenyatta’s re-election vehicle.

Sources within Jubilee said key government functionaries largely drawn from The National Alliance (TNA) were trying to implore on the President to reject Gitau’s resignation. The said functionaries, The Standard on Saturday established, insist that there is a systematic push by certain quarters within the government to edge out key figures close to President Kenyatta’s TNA party who played a crucial role in the 2013 presidential election.

“We can now see very clearly what the game is. There is a systematic pattern that things have taken, where people who were pillars in running presidential campaigns before and after the merger with URP are being targeted for removal from the government. It would appear that we are obsessed with 2022 presidential contests, yet we are yet to get done with the 2017 election,” said one of the said functionaries who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.