Businessman Jimi Wanjigi follows proceedings during the presidential debate at Catholic University on July 24, 2017. His houses have been raided by police. [PHOTO/nation.co.ke]
1. He is son to former Moi Cabinet minister Maina Wanjigi.
2. He was a tenderpreneur of both presidents Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki, and was also a heavy tenderpreneur and close friend to the Uhuruto regime in its first years in office.
3. After clashing with the Jubilee regime, he joined NASA where he has been a key financier of their political activities. He has been among Raila Odinga's biggest financiers and has played a key role in his campaigns as the funds mobiliser.
4. He is seen as a Mr Fix-it and was once untouchable owing to his links to the security apparatus and the country' senior politicians that included the late former Vice President George Saitoti.
5. He is believed to have brokered the deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta's TNA party and William Ruto's URP, something that led to formation of the Jubilee administration.
6. He is believed to have parted ways with Uhuru and Ruto over the standard gauge railway tender. This came after the government handed the tender to the Chinese Government as opposed to the companies associated with Wanjigi’s TYL Limited.
7. Wanjigi was the most feared businessman at some point in the past and held a reputation only paralelled to that of legendary barons.
8. He is said to have made his billions through government supply tenders where he got a 10 per cent cut from each of these multi-billion tenders which he fronted for various Chinese companies.
9. Jubilee has often linked him to the Anglo-Leasing scandal and accused him of running heavy cartels of corruption during the Kibaki era. He has however never been convicted.