No Justice for Pyramid Scheme Victims as CENTRAL IMENTI MP Gideon Mwiti is Acquited

The man who claims to be the watchdog of constituents has been acquitted of charges of stealing from Kenyans through a pyramid scheme that he was accused of authoring.In the said pyramid scheme, Kenyans lost more than 700 million.Imenti Central MP Gideon Mwiti Iria told a trial court in Nairobi that he was not behind the Kenya Business Community Savings Cooperative (Sacco) which the government shut down for illegal banking.The MP was defending himself before a magistrate’s court in a case of “cheating” where twelve complainants claim he swindled them of millions of shillings while acting as the Sacco general manager.“My role was purely consultancy…I was a businessman in Nairobi in 2004 running a company called Kenya Akiba Micro-Finance Limited, I was only consulted on regulatory by-laws being a lobbyist for a law seeking to regulate micro-finance institutions and this climaxed with the enactment of the micro-finance Act 2006,” Mwiti said.In the case the prosecution says Mr Mwiti cheated and induced 12 complainants to deposit their money under the guise that they would earn a monthly interest rate of 16 per cent.Mr. Mwiti has spoken twice in Parliament while representing his constituents.In April MP Mwiti said:“Hon. Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. I wish to thank my colleagues for electing you Speaker. Out there, people do not understand what Parliamentarians do. They think that Parliamentarians are noise makers. So, I suggest that Parliament forms a public relations committee which will be briefing Kenyans, probably every end of the week, on what Parliamentarians have achieved. We are the watchdog of our constituents and they need to know what we are doing in Parliament. Out there, they are saying that we make noise and we want more salaries. They need to be educated on what Parliamentarians do. This can only be done through a PR committee of this House. Every Friday, through television and radio people can know that Parliamentarians are people of dignity. They are people who support the Government of the day and they are elected to come and do business here for the Government to run. I support the Motion”On a point of order, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. As we discuss this Motion I would like to raise an issue under Standing Order No.32. I seek your guidance. I would like this House to discuss a matter of national importance, where the lecturers of public universities—This is not the end as victims of the pyramid schemes have vowed to continue seeking justice and wish to get their money back from the “consultant”.