Gachagua made the claim on Sunday while addressing clergy in Boston, United States. He said he knew of the relationship because he had served as Ruto’s deputy, and described Chivayo as a business partner and “a crook from Zimbabwe.”
“They were doing business together, and he is a man he has been using for money laundering,” Gachagua said. “He gets money in dollars, that man comes with a plane, lands in a private airstrip, and takes the money to keep for him.”
He put the alleged sum at more than KSh1.5 trillion and said the deaths had left the president without a clear way to recover the funds.
“The man has his money, over 1.5 trillion. The man is dead, his wife is dead, he doesn’t know where to begin,” he said, referring to Ruto by the nickname “Kasongo” and claiming he had “gone berserk.”
Gachagua produced no documents. Kenyafeed could not independently verify the allegation, and no public records have established that Chivayo held money for Ruto or that the transfers described took place. State House had not responded at the time of publication.
Election claim
The former deputy president also linked Chivayo to an alleged plan involving election technology for the 2027 General Election. He claimed tender specifications had been shaped to favour an unnamed South Korean firm and that Chivayo was to act as a local intermediary. Those assertions were also unsupported.
He rejected any suggestion that he or other opposition figures were involved in the crash.
“William Ruto, please don’t blame Riggy G. I didn’t kill this guy. I was in the United States. The accident happened in Zimbabwe. Surely I have nothing to do with it,” he said.
The crash
Chivayo, founder of Intratrek Zimbabwe, died with his wife, Lucy Muteke, when a private helicopter crashed on 30 September 2026 at Kudenga Farm in Marondera Rural, east of Harare.
Zimbabwean authorities said the aircraft went down about 40 minutes after leaving Gandami in Chikomba, where the couple were building a rural home. Police later named five people killed: Chivayo, Muteke, her aide Saneliswe Magagula, and pilots Calvin Tafirei Soda and Courage Mutavirwa.
Early accounts indicated the helicopter struck tail-first in poor weather and that fuel ignited after impact. The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe said the inquiry was continuing.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa confirmed the deaths. Ruto publicly called Chivayo a friend and said he was deeply saddened by the loss of Chivayo, Muteke and the others on board.
Chivayo had cultivated ties with African leaders and was often cited by critics in Zimbabwe as a politically connected contractor. He had previously been convicted in a money-laundering case and faced charges, later struck off, linked to a solar-project advance. He denied corruption allegations.
KSh1.5 trillion is on the scale of a large share of Kenya’s annual national budget. Without records, a money trail or an official response, the figure and the laundering allegation remain claims by a political rival, not established facts