City pastor James Wanjohi, a businessman, has refuted claims that he stole Ksh. Six hundred million by tricking 4,000 Kenyans into believing they would receive visas to travel abroad.
On April 24, after victims recorded statements detailing how they had been defrauded of large sums of money by the company's director, Wanjohi, police in Nairobi raided the Worthstart Africa offices in Pension Towers.
Wanjohi mocked the charges in a video that Citizen Digital could view, claiming that his opponent is launching a political witch hunt against him.
He feels that there has been animosity between him and certain people since running for the Roysambu parliamentary seat in the general election of 2022.
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"I know this is political witchhunt and business rivalry and I know I have rattled some businessmen and women who feel that they should cut my legs as of now so that I stop progressing," he said.
"I am aware that there are some politicians who are not sleeping because they are scared of me."
Wanjohi said he is no longer a preacher at the Jesus Culture Ministry, pointing out that he started his own business that has only been running for a short while.
He stated that processing 4,000 clients since opening is impractical and that his competitors are out to damage his business's reputation.
"I seized being the pastor of Jesus Culture Ministries in 2022 and if the section of the media continues to insist that I am a pastor I would like them to go interview my church members. Let them show the public an interview of my church going on. There is no such church. My work is to build churches as I hand them over," he said.
"I did not process 4,000 clients which is even barely a year my goodness. We will be celebrating our one-year anniversary next month May 17 as a company."
Additionally, Wanjohi hinted that the Embassy alone has the authority to decide whether to approve an application, with Worthstart Company only serving as a visa facilitator.
He even asserted that he possesses documentation of people who obtained their visas via his organization and have already visited the US and Canada.
He continues by saying that his business only generates "less than Ksh.5,000 in profit" and that he has lost most of his employees since the charges were made public.
The businessman claims that because he had left the country, he was unaware of the accusations and was only informed when he turned on his Kenyan SIM card.
He has promised to make himself available to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to assist with investigations and clear his name.
Victims of the raid on his offices on April 24 claimed that although they had been promised jobs and would leave the country in three months after paying, the agency had been unresponsive to their calls and questions.
According to police, each of the more than 4,000 job seekers paid an agency fee ranging from Ksh. 100,000 to Ksh. 140,000 Worthstart Africa for processing their application for an overseas job and visa.
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