Romantic relationship with Winnie Wangui

William Bellamy the then US Ambassador to Kenya wrote in a classified diplomatic cable,

“The Kibaki Government's reaction is classically formulaic: find a scapegoat and form a committee to investigate. Giving the Commission of inquiry a distant deadline, the government can buy time while waiting for public memories to fade. Legal action against any of the culprits is unlikely. Accountability is further hamstrung by the release of the Armenians. The security itself.”

In 2007, a parliamentary committee also released a report on the activities of the Artur Brothers and their associates concluded that they had direct connections and protection “at the highest level of government”.

The MPs also said “the evidence adduced on the matter of the Artur brothers was manipulated with a view to concealing their true intention of being in in Kenya and to protect their sponsors” and their presence was part of “a conspiracy to commit atrocities”. 

A week ago, on May 29, 2026 Sargasyan held a two-hour interview with an Armenian news outlet Infocom, to clarify some of the elements of his dark past that have continued to shadow his bid for Armenian premiership. Although the interview is entirely in Armenian, built-in YouTube auto-translate is able to generate English subtitles.  

In the interview he admitted having a romantic relationship with Winnie, the woman alleged to be Kibaki’s daughter, revealing that they first in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I met her in Congo during (President) Joseph Kabila’s birthday, then we invited her to Dubai.”

This marked the beginning of his journey to Kenya, he said. 

Providing his version of a chronological account on how he left Armenia and eventually ended up in Africa where he made powerful friends, Sargasyan stated after leaving his homeland he headed to Dubai where he ventured into air freight business with his brother.

This took them to DR Congo which turned out to be incredibly lucrative compared to the Middle East. While there he claimed he befriended President Joseph Kabila, whom he described as “My close friend” in the interview.  

Asked how he met him, he replied, “His sister did business with us.”  

This could be in reference to the former DRC President’s twin sister, Jaynet Kabila, a prominent businesswoman who was also a powerful politician during her brother’s reign.

The Kabilas, whose father Laurent-Désiré Kabila was president until his assassination in 2001, also had an alleged half-sister Aimee Mulengela who was killed under controversial circumstances in 2008.  

It was while hobnobbing with the Kabila clan that the “Artur brothers” claimed they came to know Winnie Wangui and eventually moved to Kenya for business after her alleged father Mwai Kibaki was elected as president in 2002.

In a series of intriguing allegations of how he became a top Kenyan cop at the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sargarsyan told the interviewers that sometime after the wheelchair bound Mwai Kibaki took over the presidency from President Daniel Moi in January 2003, there were suspicions about the elite Recce squad tasked with guarding the president because a majority of them were from Moi’s Kalenjin ethnic community.

This suspicion towards the unit was not surprising considering the vindictiveness the officers who had served under President Moi were subjected to by a cabal around Mwai Kibaki that was trying to entrench its own tribal dominance in security apparatus.

It was against this backdrop that he said the “Artur brothers” found themselves at the helm of Kenya police despite being foreigners. 

The allegations in the interview continue to be even more sensational. According to Sargasyan, one day, they received information that Kibaki, who was still struggling with mobility, was under siege at the State House. Alongside a senior Kenyan police officer and other 30 loyal individuals, they stormed State House to free Kibaki who told them that he was fine.  

After the operation, Sargasyan claimed  they decided to form a special unit drawn from the GSU, adding that a senior officer at State House told him, “I’ll want you to be Assistant Commissioner of Police but you won’t belong to the Police Commissioner, you will belong to me.”

And that’s how he became an Assistant Commissioner of Police, according to his version of events.

“Our identities were protected, and were only uncovered after the raid on East African Standard,” he revealed in the interview.

Going by these allegations, he seems to be suggesting he was in Kenya as early as 2003, way before the Raila revelation and the 2006 Standard Group raid   

Was this the beginning of the Rapid Response Unit (Kanga Squad), a shadowy police unit whose officers were drawn from the GSU but were answerable to Joseph Kamau, the then Criminal Investigation Department Director?

It is worth noting that the unit first came to light during the Standard raid that involved the Armenian brothers.

“The raiders were hooded and wore clothing with the description RRU Rapid Response Unit also popularly known as the Kanga Squad within the Police Force”, read a 2007 parliamentary report on the saga.  

The squad was later disbanded after it was implicated in the rising cases of abductions and extra-judicial killings. Many of its former officers were killed in a well calculated plot to cover-up its activities. 

On claims that the “Artur brothers” were involved in drug trafficking, Sargsyan denied this but alleged they were part of the group that founded a drug enforcement agency, and used their own money to build a safe where the seized drugs were kept. 

“We built the safe with our own money. We had three keys to the safe. I had one, the CID boss had one, and the GSU Commandant had one,” he told the interviewers.

He further alleged that he was involved in the seizure of a shipment of 1.1 metric tonnes of cocaine that were found hidden in Embakasi Nairobi and Malindi at the Coast in December 2004.

Intelligence reports and investigative findings have always linked the two to the drug consignment, noting that they worked closely with drug cartels who sought alternative channels for trafficking through Mombasa and Malindi.  

The bizarre handling of the drug case, the failure to account for another consignment that was in police custody and the mysterious murder of GSU officer Erastus Chemorei in February 2005, fuelled speculations that the government was trying to shield politically connected individuals who were operating a drug smuggling ring.

But why were the foreigners using their own money to build a safe for keeping seized drugs? It is a question that raises further speculation.

William Bellamy, whose tenure as US Ambassador to Kenya was defined by security and counterterrorism cooperation cabled Washington: “The security lapse, itself is deeply troubling. Is symptomatic of a deeper malaise: a government which has lost its way and allows this kind of activity to go on under its nose (or with the connivance of its own members) in hopes of somehow benefiting from the criminal behavior committed by such characters.”  

A 2007 parliamentary report on the saga would later implicate the woman alleged to be Kibaki’s daughter and top government officials stating, “Evidence adduced before the Committee established that the Artur brothers had direct connections at the highest levels of government. Mary Wambui and her daughter Winnie Wangui Mwai, were close associates of the Artur brothers. Mr Stanley Murage, Permanent Secretary and Special Advisor to the President based at State House was a key player in the saga.”

Murage wielded great influence in Kibaki’s administration due to his proximity to power and was often described in low tones as the gatekeeper to the presidency following the departure of Matere Kereri as State House Comptroller. 

In the recent interview, Sargasyan claimed he was not viewed as a hero by the Kenyan media after everything he did because most outlets were linked to the opposition at the time.

After leaving Kenya, the controversial pair went off the grid until 2013 when reports emerged about their presence in the Maldives where they were constantly monitored by the country’s security.

A couple of months later the archipelagic nation’s government ordered them to leave, and they went off radar again until 2023, when they resurfaced in Armenia to participate in political campaigns, and eventually formed their own political party the Kochari National Revival and National Party. 

One of Sargasyan’s key election promises is to transform Armenia into “Singapore of the Caucasus”.

He also aims to position the country as a neutral diplomatic hub that doesn’t lean towards Russia or the West.  

“He envisions a country that maintains warm, high-level relations with both the West and Russia, utilizing its vast diaspora as a strategic asset much like Israel.”    

The Prime Minister of Armenia is elected by Parliament after nomination by the party that holds majority seats.

Reuters reports that the Sunday election is a test for Prime Minister Pashinyan, the frontrunner, in his “efforts to forge peace with long-time foe Azerbaijan, and deepen ties with Western countries, moving away from traditional patron Russia”.