DP Rigathi Gachagua has blamed coffee cartels for the death of his  brother and first Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagua.

Speaking on Sunday, Gachagua claimed that the cartels poisoned Nderitu and the move saw his health deteriorate before he eventually died. Nderitu passed away on February 24, 2017 at Royal Marsden Hospital in London where he  was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

“Our family believes and we know the late Nderitu Gachagua was poisoned by those people. Since then, a very healthy person started becoming sickly and we believe these people harmed him,” Riggy G said.

Gachagua warned that coffee cartels are extremely dangerous, adding that governors can not manage to deal with them. He noted that only him and the president have the capability of stopping the criminals.

“The president assigned the task of leading these people because at least I have more resources including security. This people are not good people. This war cannot be won by governors, this can only be won by DP and the president, these people are dangerous and can even kill you,” he said.

The DP, who chaired a two-day national coffee summit,  vowed to crush cartels that have infiltrated the coffee sector and continued to reap benefits meant for the farmers.

At the same time, he revealed that the cartels sent Kshs30 million as a welcome gift to Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi when the president William Ruto named his cabinet.

“They tried to bribe our CS, Mithika Linturi with Ksh.30 million when our government came into power. They said the money was from  these cartels, and that it was a welcome gift to him,” he disclosed.