News
Anti-Counterfeit Boss Kabeabea Loses Job After Taking Sh150,000 Bribe
NAIROBI — Josephat Gichunge Kabeabea has been removed from his post as chair of the Anti-Counterfeit Authority after an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission probe found he took a Sh150,000 bribe from a foreign investor, officials said.
Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui gazetted the revocation of Kabeabea’s appointment, saying the decision followed the Anti-Counterfeit Act and other regulations.
The termination took effect on November 28, 2025.
Kabeabea was arrested on November 14 when EACC officers executed coordinated raids on his home and offices as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, extortion of investors and unexplained wealth.
The EACC says preliminary inquiries show he solicited a Sh5 million payment from a Chinese businessman before lowering the demand repeatedly until the matter was settled with Sh150,000.
According to investigators, the complainant, who did not have cash on hand, was told to send the money to a mobile phone number registered in the name of Kabeabea’s driver.
CCTV footage also reportedly placed Kabeabea at the complainant’s business premises on November 10 and 11, a detail the EACC noted as supporting evidence.
The EACC’s findings follow other alleged incidents. Authorities say Kabeabea also demanded money from a separate firm in a case that reportedly involved threats linked to counterfeit allegations.
The details have formed part of a broader investigation into alleged extortion of both local and foreign investors.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions approved bribery charges against Kabeabea on November 17.
He was arraigned at the Milimani Anti-Graft Court on counts that include demanding and receiving a bribe under the Anti-Bribery Act and related offenses under proceeds of crime laws.
Kabeabea served as Tigania East MP from 2017 to 2022 and was appointed ACA chair by President William Ruto in February 2023.
His rise to the agency’s leadership had been accompanied by public attention, including an incident in 2022 in which his vehicle was set on fire during the campaign period.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
THE PHANTOM COVER: PART II Three Anonymous Directors. A Cheaper Bid Ignored. Sh13.3 Million in Unexplained Overpayment. And the Certificate That Proves FKF Knew Exactly What It Was Doing
The Big Gaffe That Has Become Kenya’s Foreign Ministry
THE BRAZEN RETURN: Triton Thief Yagnesh Devani, Who Pillaged Kenya of Sh7.6 Billion and Fled, Now Asks the Same Courts He Escaped to Restore His Stolen Wealth
Alex Chesang Busted Lying: Sleeping In The Streets And Making Sh2 Million Per Weekend In Campus?
THE UNTOUCHABLE CLERK: How Fatuma Mwalupa Allegedly Turned Kwale Assembly Into a Personal Treasury and Outsmarted Scrutiny
A Judge, A Tycoon, And a Village: How Mohamed Jaffer’s Alleged Courtroom Alchemy Now Threatens 50,000 Mombasa Residents
Why Dr. Korir Sing’oei’s Reform Agenda at Foreign Affairs Matters for Kenya
THE PHANTOM COVER: Unlicensed Broker Vanishes With Sh42M, Hussein Mohammed Fingered In The Alleged CHAN 2024 Insurance Scandal
The Minister of Illusion: How Energy PS Alex Wachira Has Perfected the Art of the Fake Launch, Leaving Darkness Where Fanfare Once Blazed
How to Live Bet on Football in Kenya: A Complete Guide for 2026
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
Mombasa Lawyer Exposed In Sh600 Million Alleged Double-Dealing Diani Property Transaction
-
News2 weeks agoMombasa Lawyer Exposed In Sh600 Million Alleged Double-Dealing Diani Property Transaction
-
News2 weeks agoThe Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
-
Business2 weeks agoWattanga Fired Over Incompetence in Tech, Insiders Say
-
Business6 days agoGetting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
-
Business7 days agoKenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
-
Business1 week agoHow Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
-
Business5 days agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
News1 week agoThe Kewota Racket: How Kenya’s Female Teachers Are Being Bled Dry