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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Bad News For Kenyans: Why The Kroll Report Will Never Be Discussed In Parliament

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One of the saddest things about the leaked Kroll Associates report that sheds light on a lot of details of how corruption money was handled, laundered and transferred out of the country during the Moi era and after, is that it is highly unlikely to be discussed in parliament.

The reason is simple, a casual look at the names mention in the report shows that the names cut across both members of the current opposition and the government.

Just imagine a situation where we are all thieves. How can any of us point a finger at the other? Doing so would simply provoke the accused to expose all the evils they know that are connected to their accuser.

I feel pity for many supporters of both the ODM parties who are sure that their preferred presidential candidates are clean and...

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11 comments:

  1. Copying and pasting from my earlier comment-just so I'm tops!


    That aside, lets see how expensive corruption is and how we can handle it. I'm ashamed to say that I've bribed (indirectly) twice. First time was at the Nakuru General Hospital where I needed a medical exam to show at my college for admission. My cousin-brother was talking to the Dr. who is a distant relative (by marriage as he is Luhya and we Gikuyu) of his wife -outside the office, of course- and turned and said, 'Wina icoya?'-'uko na soo moja?', at which point I gave him Ksh 100, part of what my dad had given me. He in turn handed it to the Dr. My papers were signed, I was in good health, and went on to college for my admission. However, the health officials at colle were not fools. I had to bring a chest x-ray, and 'good' was not good enough for my urine tests. Had to spend more money going to a private practitioner who asked for a hefty amount of money (in my opinion-I didn't have so much!) to get these things exactly as colle officials wanted them. Wished I'd gone there in the first place, woulda saved time, and money.
    Second time, I was going to Mombasa at night. Bus was not leaving till 10pm, so there was no way I was gonna stay at Nyamakima the whole day and part of the night. Went to Ungwaro instead to wait for my little bro to close shop and take me back to Mombasa Raha buses. He asked a friend to accompany him, and this friend did not carry kitambulsiho. We made it to tao sawa but were running late. Like a few metres away from the Mombasa Raha buses, we came across the karao-guess its only in Nai where you freak out when you see them boys in their long kabutis at night, instead of the other way round.Maybe only if you don't have kitambulisho.Boy in kabuti saw we were nervous so 'wapi gitambulisho?'. Baby brother and I have ours, and start lying that the other guy is our other baby brother .Boy in blue sees through the lies, or is persistently seeking kitu kidogo, at which point I've to go otherwise Ill miss the Raha in Mombasa. Run off and leave them to jitetea. Get to Mombasa Raha bus, tell one of the touts my experience and he agrees to accompany me to look for my 'brothers'. Funny, I felt safe with the tout and not the other boy-my dad was a matatu driver though, so maybe its a trust I developed back in the day. We don't find them, and go back, only to find them looking for me in the bus because they gave the other boy everything they had, now they are stranded and can't go back home. I give them Ksh 200 and wish them luck-from the karao and thugs alike- on their way back. I get a text msg later on my way that they fikad salama, though it was a game of cat and mouse, maybe cats-and-mice game?
    Third time lucky! I urgently need a passport. I look into all my networks. Local travel agency claims they are a passport agent, so if I give them Ksh 12,000, will have it in three days from Kisumu, where its apparently easier than Nairobi. I say, are you recognized by the govt,no we are not, but we are known. I don't have more than the Ksh2,040 plus transport costs that it takes to get the passport, so forget it. Oh, and the guy telling me this is from my local church where we sing and have fun together in the youth group. Next, the local chief. This is ridiculous, but he asks for Ksh 30,000 for it to be processed fast. Asante bwana chief lakini sina hiyo pesa. So I go off to Nairofi. I start the paperwork and explain that I need it ASAP. Guy says it takes 31 working days -and that's exactly what the papers clearly state (minus public holidays and weekends in between)- to have it processed. I must have it before I can even apply for a visa, and will never make it in time. I'm desperate.Mine is not an emergency because no one is sick, so no emergency processing. BUT, if you have Ksh 3,000, says guy at the front desk, you can have it in 3 days. Is this official? No. Sina pesa.
    I go ahead and apply and tell my friends who hook me up with a connected Kenyan who in turn tells me who to see at the same Nyayo Hse. Who to see says kama ulitaka usaidizi, hungeachilia iende (as in ningeongea na yeye first), sasa siwezi saidia.Oh well, I talk to my dad who comes to Nai talks to some pretty girl whom I later see. She makes me come to Nyayo hse and wait till close of business several days. But one long day after close of business and what feels like a litre of tears from my eyes, my passport comes 'from huko juu'. I really don't know if my dad gave 'anything' but this time I did not bribe, and got things in good time. I could have parted with Ksh 12,000 to the travel agency or Ksh 30,000 to the local chief or Ksh 3,000 at the door.
    Next time someone blames the the past,current, or future govt for corruption, ask them who gave the bribes. Being steadfast/mean/stickyhanded-you know how hard you work to just come across an opportunity to earn the Ksh- can help fight corruption in Kenya.I blame me, not the govt. I expect me, not some some govt to fight corruption.Because everyone running for president has been involved in corrupt deals. I am Kenya, and will save me from corruption.

    PS:'Chris',don't comment. Just take that, post something along the same lines, and give no credit.

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  2. The Mystery of KEN REN Fertilizer company
    While researching the notorious Russian MI-17 helicopter overhaul contract, we came across a puzzling exchange in the Parliamentary Hansard of June 26th 2007.

    The scene opens with Joe Nyagah, MP for Gachoka in a full frontal engagement with John Michuki, the Minister for Administration and National Security over the 12.8 million dollar helicopter overhaul contract that was awarded to the highest bidder. At issue is whether or not Mr. Nyagah is in a position to give the true facts over helicopters. Joe Nyagah suddenly shifts gears and thanks the government in the ultimate back-handed fashion. If he intended to silence Mr. Michuki, it worked.

    “Mr. Deputy Sir, I wish to thank the Government for wishing to repay the [sic] Ken Ren loans. As we know, Ken Ren collapsed in 1970’s. I see that from this year, we will start repaying those loans dating back to 1970’s.”

    Mr. Nyagah’s thanks cannot have gone down well at all. He had raised a gigantic bogey from the past. The distant past - three decades ago.

    Ken Ren Chemical and Fertiliser Company; a 30 year-old scandal had re-emerged, with less than 4 months to go before the 2007 presidential election.

    A thumb nail sketch of Ken Ren:
    In its hey-day, Ken Ren was the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing of Kenyan public sector corruption. It had a mix of local and foreign players and was shrouded in mystery. Shrouded in mystery, for a generation of Kenyans, Ken Ren is almost completely unknown.

    In the early 1970’s, a decision was made to enter into a joint venture with an American Company to establish a fertiliser processing plant at Mombasa, on the Kenyan Coast. The company was called Ken Ren Chemical and Fertilizer Company. The government was both a shareholder and a guarantor for the factory. The deal collapsed in scandal and the factory was never built. The company ended up in liquidation and embroiled in litigation in Europe. At the heart of parliamentary and public scrutiny, was the role of treasury, then headed by Mwai Kibaki, as Minister of Finance.

    What we know of the litigation:
    Information on the litigation is hard to come by. Nevertheless, research reveals two cases. In the first, SA Coopee Lavalin v. Ken Ren Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd, a U.K. House of Lords decision of 1994, the court records the plaintiff as a Belgian company who had contracted with the Kenyan defendant (Ken Ren) to build a chemical plant in Kenya. When a dispute was referred to arbitration by the ICC in London, the Belgian company sought security from Ken Ren, which had become insolvent, on the ground that Ken Ren’s backers (which included the Kenyan Government) were unlikely and could not be forced to pay costs, should Ken Ren’s claim at the ICC fail. The House of Lords agreed to order security, partly on the basis that the insolvent Ken Ren was being funded by the Kenyan Government.

    The second litigation ended more recently. The ICC Arbitration proceedings, Republic of Kenya vs. Bawag of Austria, resulted in an award against Kenya in November 2000; and heralded the beginning of the re-entry of Ken Ren into the public consciousness.

    Fast Forward to 2007:



    Soon after Joe Nyagah’s altercation with John Michuki, on July 11th 2007, Peter Kenneth (Assistant Minister for Finance) tabled a list of all loans signed by the Government of Kenya between January 1963 and December 31st 2006.

    On this list there are two Ken Ren related loans. Unpaid loans. Collectively, they are worth just over Ksh. 4.3 billion. The questions rapidly follow:

    Why would we have such loans on our books, in 2007 if the Ken Ren Fertiliser Company was never built?


    Why do the budget estimates provide for a payment of at least Ksh.268m on principal and interest payments for Ken Ren, which by all accounts ended in failure 30 years ago?
    Why should Kenyans pay for a 30 year old dud project?


    Who was responsible for getting us into this debt, in the first place?
    The Ken Ren Debts:

    It is possible to depict the Ken Ren debts in tabular form. The information below is derived from public domain Kenyan Ministry of Finance documents including the list of loans signed between 1963 and 2006, the statement of public debt and the budget estimates 2007/8. Ken Ren, it would appear, has been hidden in plain site.



    Creditor

    Date

    Purpose

    Amount

    Outstanding June 2005

    Repayment Terms

    Budget 2007-8 Provision

    Austria –

    Bank Fr Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG

    (BAWAG)

    November 14th 2000

    Ken Ren Fertiliser Company Restructuring Agreement

    Ksh 1.4 billion

    Euro 16.63 million

    Ksh 1.48 billion

    Loan of Euros 16,635,156 payable semi-annually commencing 30 September 2003 and ending 31 March 2014 as per agreement dated 14 November 2000

    Principal redemption Ksh 192,982,604

    Interest Ksh 75,644,019

    Belgium - Ducroire

    ICC Award November 6th 2002

    Ken Ren Rescheduled debt agreement (No. ii)

    Ksh 2.89 billion

    Euro 32.5 million



    Ksh 2.85 billion

    Loan of Euros 32,520,319 repayable in 21 semi-annual instalments the first falling due on 31st December 2003 and ending on 30th June 2015





    Bearing in mind that our public debt accounted for 50.5% of our GDP in 2006, is it not time Kenyans started asking pointed questions about Ken Ren and other odd debts?

    Especially now in this is election year, as Minister of Finance Amos Kimunya continues to borrow at unprecedented levels – even while an 11 country study by the World Bank study rates Kenya’s debt management capacity as weak (Business Daily, July 10th 2007)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deputy Luke here, about to ruin someone's day yet again with my amnesia for politriks of the die hard brand:

    what do you mean the Kroll report will never be discussed in parliament? of course it will!Ours is a Government that has dramatically expanded democratic space by at approximately 6.1%(kindly revise that figure both up and downwards) and nothing is beyond discussion in the public domain,nothing! Not even the ever-rising cost of basic food&commodity prices like Unga&Kerosene since 2002.today you can speak your mind, write your thoughts, express yourself freely anywhere anytime on a wide range of national issues regardless of their sensitivity. Wasn't what happened in 2006 at the Standard office premises openly discussed in parliament? of course it was! However, we all know that that was the raid that never was, come on surely we all know that.
    Artur who? who is his mother?hata yeye naye pumbavu
    Wasn't the Anglo-leasing scandal openly discussed in parliament? of course it was, not that anything came out of it, but what does that matter? Anglo-leasing was the scandal that never was. please, don't rattle, just go slow. g-o s-l-o-w
    Please Chris,be advised that ours is a brand of politics in which one must be seen to appear to be very busy doing something;hakuna cha bure hapa lakini yote yawezekana na Kitu Kidogo. if you can't get enough of a quorum going in bunge, just call a press conference to show how busy you are delivering promised to the Kenyans,maybe they can't see. if you can't be present to answer questions in parliament on behalf of your constituents, just hold a political rally and either attack or praise huo mjaluo au adui wake, if you can't....then compose and sing songs ala choir-masters Kajwang or court jesters Ndolo et Mwenje.
    Never forget after-all, we are a working nation(now 24 seven) and the dawn till dusk city-wide traffic jams prove that. Listen,even Kalembe Ndile is very busy answering telephones day-in day out, don't you know there is Telekom wireless nowadays? hallo hallo
    So please, Kroll report will be discussed in parliament with all due earnestness it deserves; PAC may even issue too hot to ignore summons not that anything will come out of it, umekula mbuzi ya nani?There is absolutely no connection between endemic corruption in Kenya and poverty, and i can prove it! its just a coincidence that the two always appear side-by-side, just like there are many hotels in Karatina you're free to enter in except one.be responsible and don't be foolish enter the right hotel what's wrong with you? thank you,please come again soon
    Don't let corruption(sorry, alleged reports about corruption) disturb your peace. all kenyans are corrupt, so no one should be punished for anything, who is not guilty?do you want all of us to go in jail?PKW has already written out a voluntary confession, we don't want to loose her to have porn-poster take her place

    Kalamari usiku imeiva amka

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  4. Wow! Boy that was a mouthful. Can the REAL ANONYMOUS please stand up and stop hidding under facelessness. Chris if you thought thus was going to be the female parent of all lections in Kenya you were dead wrong on the premise of politicking. But you were VERY RIGHT we haven't seen anything yet. I pray that I have the patience and time to read what promises to be a valanche of BREAKING revelations and PROPAGANDA.

    Being horseless I will read and decipher all and continue walking and not missing the ride. Some of these revelations won't make sense to many whose memory only came to existence i the Nyayo error. But with freedom I won't be surprised to see (and I will defend them parading) defenses premised on ignorance. Thank God for small mercies in citizen journalism. And let the game begin and the heat too.

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  5. Luke can you show cause whhy you should not be gagged (RAIDED) for being cheeky? I hope you are not unwittingly inviting yourself to be FIRED llest.....

    PS: Ati PAC to investigate? Hiyo ni mnyama gani na ina nini? Just imagine who PAC chair is and where his present loyalties are. Not forgeting that he may be sffering serious bout of amnesia by latently joining GNU (Gusa NAK Unuone) that he wanted Kaparo to rule on its illigality. Hey I beg to stop being a RUINER of maendeleo henceforth.

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  6. Got a right to vote for saint whoever, but surprise,even he will not miraculously put ugali on your meza. Washeni kuregarega kazi. Back in the day it was oh Moi this, 2002 came 'we' it sounded just like today and then, oh Kibaki.
    Like AIDS corruption starts with you. Wake up and face it.

    Thanks Luke, for using your medula oblongata (no I'm not Luo, just helping you out in ruining my day-sic!-with mere terms) to recycle old comments.Keep on keeping on.

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  7. Kumekucha,

    I may have jumped the gun. I must also confess i have not read the report. Please bring on the details.

    JEFF

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  8. from the kroll report i did some background check on the two companies mentioned namely SAMEER AND H YOUNG which are closely associated with MOI and BIWOTT.
    READ THIS:
    Kerry has been a Senator in Washington for years. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that investigated the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, Kerry discovered what makes the Bush family tick: international underhanded deals, drug smuggling, illegal arms trafficking, support for dictators like Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, secret offshore banks accounts and CIA carve-out companies, and political assassinations. Yes, Kerry found out where all the "skull and bones" were buried.While chairing the BCCI subcommittee, and before he married Teresa Heinz, Kerry would often sit at the bar at Capitol Hill's Tex-Mex Red River Grill offering anyone who would listen to stories (even a second and third time) about what his investigation had discovered about the illegal activities of the Reagan-Bush administrations.
    There were roumoured stories that Kerry had an affair with an intern.Although the reported "liaison" of Kerry with an "intern" turned out to be totally bogus, the connections of the young woman are reasons for concern. Kerry was erroneously linked to an extramarital relationship with Alexandra Polier, a journalist who is originally from Malvern, Pennsylvania but once did some unspecified work for the British Parliament. However, it was later determined that Polier was dating an aide to Kerry, not the senator. Polier is engaged to Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli-American living in Nairobi, Kenya with his Israeli parents. Schwartzman's father is linked to some of East Africa's most unsavory players. How Kerry could have let himself become embroiled in such an episode involving people with questionable business ties, to say the least, is incredible and frightening.
    Yaron Schwartzman's father, Joseph Schwartzman, is a wealthy businessman who owns, along with former Kenyan cabinet minister, Nicholas Biwott, H. Young Company, an engineering firm located in Nairobi's Industrial Area. Biwott was a right-hand man of former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. Biwott was accused of ordering the murder of former Kenyan Foreign Minister Robert Ouko, as well as a number of other human rights violations.
    The elder Schwartzman reportedly never actually physically worked at the H. Young company's offices at the Nairobi Industrial Park. He is also connected to the Sameer Investments Group Ltd., which has sought to invest in Rwanda. Sameer Group consists of Naushad Merali, a wealthy Asian Kenyan, and the former Pakistani High Commissioner to Kenya, Hameed Kidwai. According to the Rwandan government, President Paul Kagame has held at least one meeting with Schwartzman in Kigali and met with Schwartzman and Merali at the Sameer Industrial Park in 2000. French anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere has recently concluded, after a painstaking investigation, that Kagame was involved with the 1994 shooting down by Russian-made SAM missiles of the airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira home from a peace summit. The investigation turned up a shadowy operation involving former U.S. military and intelligence operatives and oil companies known as the International Strategic and Tactical Organization (ISTO). The double assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents and their staffs triggered a genocide in Rwanda that killed as many as 1 million people and follow-on invasions and genocide in Zaire/Democratic Republic of the Congo that killed 3 million more people. After all his experience in investigating BCCI, Kerry should have had better sense than allowing his name to become associated in the media with such people.
    Sameer has been linked to Kenya's official Goldenberg Inquiry into the affairs of Goldenberg International Limited, a company believed to have been involved in the smuggling of gold and diamonds from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo via Kenya. Other players involved in Kenyan diamond and gold smuggling include Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan Asian associated with RUIM (Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli Mafia) smuggling activities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda, and Viktor Bout, a RUIM international arms smuggler who once assisted the Taliban in Afghanistan while Bin Laden was ensconced in the country planning for 9-11. Goldenberg is also alleged by Kenyan authorities to have used Mombassa's Paradise Hotel as a front operation. The Israeli-owned hotel was blown up in 2002 in an alleged attack by Al Qaeda operatives. At the same time, Russian-made SAM missiles, later found to be inoperative, were fired at an Israeli charter plane taking off from Mombassa Airport.
    NOW MR.CHRIS IF THATS YOUR REAL NAME. DO YOU SEE WHY THIS REPORT MAY NEVER BE DISCUSSED IN PUBLIC DOMAIN?????

    jane!!!

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  9. My dear sis PKW please just read your last paragraph and enlighten me on the insinuation. I always admire your guts to stand tall but you beat me on this by stooping to that leave of stereotype. I stand to be corrected but I fear you were galled too much by Luke till you inadvertently went ballistic, ama?

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  10. I wonder how much raila odinga the stupid kihii has stolen from the roads fund. After winning some mickey-mouse elections held at kasarani, the fool is now going around the country with a second hand hammer vehicle cheating wananchi how he will construct roads. How comes not a single inch of tramac was constructed when the conman served as roads minister? Why can he buy a better car after stealing billions from the government? The kihii is so mean that he has only one low quality faded stipped dull gray suit. I wonder whether he get time to take it to a mbuni drycleaner or it is washed at home.. kioko, BC, Canada.

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  11. Kioko you head and mouth needs drycleaning more than any garment you speak of. You level and consistency in being STUPID is now no news, try another one you FOOL on the net.

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