Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua is expected to be arraigned in Nairobi on Monday after spending the weekend in police cells following his arrest on Friday.

Gachagua, a strong ally of Deputy President William Ruto, is set to face charges of graft, money laundering and abuse of office after he was arrested Friday at his Ruguru home in Nyeri County.

He has been in custody at Gigiri Police Station after he was questioned by detectives for hours at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu road.

Sleuths apprehended the Jubilee MP, who has pledged allegiance to Ruto’s UDA party, at his home in Mathira Constituency during a raid at dawn and taken to the DCI headquarters.

He was grilled over alleged Sh7 billion money laundering, misuse of NGCDF funds and dubious tenders for hospitals in Nyeri County under his late brother, Governor Nderitu Gachagua.

The firebrand lawmaker, however, blames his arrest on 2022 politics, even as he dared DCI to arrest and prosecute him for corruption during an interview on Citizen TV on Tuesday.