NEWS RELEASE
Thursday 14 August 2008 - For immediate release
Githongo to return to Kenya
John Githongo, former Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics in the Kenya Government, is to return to Kenya after an absence of over three years. He is currently Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford, and Vice-President, Policy and Advocacy, of the relief, development and advocacy agency World Vision.
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Also published in Kumekucha today: Passionate mistakes in relationships
Small Business Kenya: Secret of success that should not be secret
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Mr Githongo has been invited to address a meeting of the Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi on 20 August.
In a statement issued in London today, Mr Githongo said that he had been invited back by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka.
"I have been greatly encouraged by both the Prime Minister and the Vice President," he said, "and now believe that it is time to return home and make any contribution I can to the future of my country. Kenya has faced severe problems in recent months, and some of these remain. But I have complete confidence in the ability of Kenyans, at all levels, to confront and surmount them.
"I intend to speak my mind on what I feel needs to be done. I have no political affiliations. My obligations are solely to the people of Kenya – particularly the poor, the dispossessed and those in need."
Welcome Back Githongo-speak your mind freely!As a guest of the state you are far better than Arturs or the fake General Mathenge, your intergrity is a cut above anyone in PNU/ODM infact you are so good Kenyans didn't know until you were gone how good you were
ReplyDeleteWelcome Back!
Well JG is not naive to the sharks waiting to drai his blood. He is a marked man and the people he RUBBED the wrong way still very powerful. His coming will raise political temperatures as one faction sees it as an attempt to steal thunder from its belly while the other gathers wind in its sail. And then the tribal cheerleaders will follow and the TRAITOR tag will be handy. Interesting times we live in as Kenyans. Welcome back JG.
ReplyDeleteLol, Winter is just round the corner and pooor Githongo can't stand another round of snowy blitz. I would not even wish my worst enemy to live in U.K. I once visited some parts of Britain where whites openly spit when they see a black face while some old lay-dees clutch on their handbags as if they have encountered a mugger or a rapist. Even Chelsea's Drogba openly complained about this racist attitude. I don't care about our potholes, traffic jams, "deception" or dictatorship but give me Kenya any time!
ReplyDelete>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now some jucy gossip. This KTN Kiswahili newsreader called Mwanaisha Chizudga is off for meternity leave. Who is the Daddy politician who also bought her a swanky pad in the upmarket Kilimani area? This politician is on his 2nd term in parliament, studied Law and has boyish lady killer looks. He is also fond of sharp suits. He dumped his Kikuyu wife for petite Mwanaisha who is single and very beautiful. This said politician is not an ODM member! Enough clues?... Ok will be exposing Him later on...kaa jicho!
MPESA, i see you have decided to make Kumekucha your dumping ground for tabloid trash how unfortunate but you are welcome, some people confuse this place with Mashada all the time-feelanga free
ReplyDeleteanon 3.49
ReplyDeleteThis is a political blog and I'm justified to expose WOMANIZING, ILLICIT LOVE AFFAIRS, DECEPTION AND FRAUD which is rampant in Bunge. It has been done before with the likes of Kirubi, Esther Passaris, Jeff Koinange etc right here on this very blog by Chris, so what has changed??? Stay tuned guys, I will be exposing the love rat right here on this very post later on? Only the guilty of similar deception would object. But of course I'm not an insensitive prick, if there's overwhelming objection, I won't OUT the love rat. Wangapi hawataki? Hands up!
M-Pesa,
ReplyDeleteLeave gossip on croc eater from R. Tana alone. You will be soon sued for e-slander. Watch your back, the guy just graduated with his masters from Parklands. Please stop the GOSSIP bro, will you please?
Second term? Studied law? I know at least two....Peter Munya and Danson Mungatana...Mungatana has nice boyish looks according to some people I know and both love their suits a bit too much. So which one is it Mpesa?
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Bwana John Githongo. And please spill all the beans.
ReplyDeleteM-Pesa some more clues please although I'm thinking I can guess already. That is if he's from the Coast.
Aha so it's the Croc-eater.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time. Hebu he concentrates on kujenga taifa, not succession siasa.
ReplyDeleteEi Shiko maneno matamu yamemtoa nyoka pangoni (Shiko is that right? you know swahili is hard) Enyewe umepotea i think Knoppix should be threatening you more often.
ReplyDeleteTaabu who gave you a mji...It was supposed to be kitendawili....How do you entrust a man with a country if he can't take of his ka-small family? I hear that his hobby was watching KTN leo @ 7Pm..He watched it religioulsy everyday...lol
Githongo come home? But what is it that you are coming with that we dont know already...The guys you implicated are in the driving seat..>So i wonder what?
Lol Ivy. I've been out and about traveling, visiting the village and appreciating Kenya. I didn't have too much technology with me but at least enough to keep up with stuff here and other areas in blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteI saw your comments and for Knoppix. But I'm back.
Knoppix sema.
Taabu... "Leave gossip on croc eater from R. Tana alone."...Spot on!
ReplyDeleteSuccession is way too far. Hebu some people concentrate on service delivery and implementing the manifestos.
JOHN GITHONGO
ReplyDeleteSenior Associate Member
St. Antony’s College
62 Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6JF
United Kingdom
H.E. President Mwai Kibaki
President of the Republic of Kenya
State House Nairobi
22nd November, 2005
Dear Sir,
Re: Cover letter accompanying report on my findings of graft in the Government of Kenya.
It has been my desire to send the attached summary report to you but I thought it wise to wait until the conclusion of the politically intense referendum-related campaigning period. The reason for this was that my report be not construed to be part of a politically-motivated action in favour or in opposition to any political formation in Kenyan context. Indeed, I completed this dossier in September, 2005 after four and half months of steady work and chose to wait until the conclusion of the referendum process to forward it for your attention.
Find attached a summary document of a wider 91 page report on my findings regarding the most egregious cases of corruption that were the subject m attention under your instruction during the time I served as your Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President in-charge of Governance and Ethics.
Although you are aware of the issues, I have chosen to prepare this report for you in part, as a result of information being made available to me by your Permanent Secretary in-charge of Strategy based at State House, Mr. Stanley Murage, that some of my written briefs to you during my tenure may no longer be available for one reason or another, that is not in the realm of my understanding.
Secondly, as we discussed with you severally during our briefing sessions when I served as your Permanent Secretary, I had evidence of culpability on the part of the senior-most officials of our administration in some of the corruption-related scandals that were the subject of my Department’s interest; and that were subject of investigation variously by the Office of the Controller and Auditor General, the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission; and, at times the Kenya Police.
As you my remember from our meeting of the 3rd of February 2004 that took place in the evening in your room at State House I adopted the practice of regularly keeping a record of key meetings I was involved in. I am in a position to conclusively substantiate the claims made in the attached report by means of incontrovertible material evidence. I am happy to share this with you directly.
It is my hope that these matters can be brought to their nationally beneficial conclusion and should you seek any clarification, I will be happy to avail at your earliest convenience.
I believe, Sir, that dealing with the issues very briefly mentioned herein are integral to regaining the trust and goodwill of the Kenyan people in your Presidency and the Government. I am willing to assist in any way you should direct in not only dealing with these issues but in contributing to the processes that will ensure they are not repeated in the future.
I beg to remain,
Sir,
Your Most Faithful Servant
John Githongo
STATEMENT
This is my statement of events leading up to my resignation in February, 2005 and in particular the assorted corruption-related matters I was inquiring into at the time which came to a head. I start at the beginning of 2004.
1. ANGLO LEASING
On the 3rd of March 2004, my department was provided with information that suggested that a non-existent company called Anglo Leasing and Finance had been awarded a contract by the Immigration Department in the Ministry of Home Affairs and a 3 percent down payment, of around Ksh. 90 million had been paid.
2. THE VICE PRESIDENT AND ANGLO LEASING
10th March, 2004
On Wednesday, March 10, information reached me that mirrored what had been told to me on March 3, 2004.
I called the Vice President that there were two things bothering me: first, I had heard that maybe the Anglo Leasing Company did not exist and therefore had been created for some untoward purpose and, second, the supposed company was linked to Deepak Kamani of Mahindra Jeeps fame and that if we continued interacting with him as a new government this would cause us great embarrassment considering his terrible track record.
3. STRUCTURAL BOTTLENECKS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
27th/28th March, 2004
While attending a money laundering conference in Mombasa that was opened by Hon. David Mwiraria the Minister of Finance, Hon. Mwiraria pulled me aside during a break and told me that Hon. Murungaru had recently called him. Apparently Murungaru had asked Mwiraria to ask me whether I had authorized an investigation into the bank accounts of an individual called Anura Perera at Equatorial Bank.
Hon. Mwiraria informed me that Perera was a ‘strong supporter of the President and had backed him for over 10 years’, and had been paid the President’s medical bills incurred in London following his road accident in 2002. This surprised me because since 2003 Mr Perera’s name had been linked, albeit without evidence, to some of the egregious cases of corruption in the Defence/Security sector going back to the 1980s. The head of the Banking Fraud Department of the Central Bank, Nicholas Kamwende, was also at the workshop. I later went over to ask him whether he was indeed conduction such an investigation – because I knew nothing about it. He confirmed that he was indeed conducting such an investigation because his department suspected that Equatorial Bank was involved in the setting up of fictitious accounts that were ‘being used for capital flight’.
4th April, 2004
Your Excellency, I briefed you on all these matters on the 4th April, 2004.
4. ANGLO LEASING GOES PUBLIC
21st April 2004
KANU MP Ntonyiri, Maoka Maore tabled documents before parliament on a company called Anglo Leasing and Finance Company Limited that had allegedly been paid a commitment fee of 3 percent amounting to over Ksh. 90 million as part of a Ksh. 2.7 billion contract to produce tamper-proof passports for the immigration department.
Your Excellency I briefed you on this on the 22nd of April 2004 and that in light of the intelligence this was likely the first big case of graft in our administration. I also wrote a letter to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority asking them to get to the bottom of the matter as we had discussed.
5. ANGLO LEASING: THE ANATOMY
Your Excellency the anatomy of the Anglo Leasing matter is contained in reports I made available to you titled: KACC report titled ‘Immigration Security and Document Control Project-report on Investigations into allegations of corruption in this project’ dated 18-05-04; and the Kenya National Audit Office Special Audit Report on procurement of passport issuing equipment dated 13-05-04.
2nd May 2004
At the end of April 2004, I traveled to the United Kingdom with Hon. Kiraitu Murungi to the offices of Kroll Associates. While at Kroll we asked to do a search for the company called Anglo Leasing and Finance Co. and found that no such entity existed in the UK or had ever existed there. Upon return to Kenya, I found the investigations had been proceeding expeditiously despite hiccups and, Your Excellency, I updated you on progress, including the fact that senior officials in government were possibly implicated in the unfolding saga. Those mentioned by the investigators at his stage included Hon. Moody Awori, Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, Hon. David Mwiraria, Hon. Chris Murungaru, PS Home Affairs, Mr. Sylvester Mwaliko, PS Finance, Mr. Joseph Magari, PS Internal Security Mr. David Mwangi, Mr, Alfred Getonga, Mr. Deepak Kamani and Mr. Jimmy Wanjigi.
I also remember that you emphasized to me at this meeting that we locate the commitment fee paid to Anglo Leasing and Finance Company of Ksh. 91 million. I immediately set about doing this.
6. DISCUSSION OF ANGLO LEASING WITH VICE PRESIDENT, MINISTER MURUNGI AND MINISTER MURUNGARU
4th May 2004
On the 4th of May 2004 I was invited to lunch by Hon. Kiraitu at the Vice President’s home. Minister Murungaru also attended. We had an inconclusive discussion on the Anglo Leasing matter which I briefed you on later. The Ministers questioned the need for an investigation into the matter since the Vice President had already given a parliamentary statement.
5th May 2004
Gideon Mutua and Hussein Were, who were the KACC’s lead investigators into the matter, came in to brief me and reported that everything now pointed to a ‘gigantic attempted fraud’. They informed me that in addition to the Ksh. 91 million that had been paid to Anglo Leasing as a commitment fee, an additional Euro 3,750,00 (Approx. Ksh 300 million at the time) was even then being processed for payment to Anglo Leasing on the same project. They explained that while interviewing PS Magari he had pointed out to them that Hon. Murungaru had asked for them to pull back.
Later that day, 5th May, 2004 in parliament Hon. Chris Murungaru announced that the Government had cancelled the Anglo Leasing contract pending the completion of investigations.
10th May, 2004
On the 10th of May, 2004 the KACC investigators informed me that the PS/Treasury PS/Home Affairs, Dr Sitonik, the head of GITS and the entity known as Anglo Leasing were the primary suspects in the case of the attempted fraud. Your Excellency, on this day I briefed you regarding this development. Later that day, Hon. Kiraitu came to my office and informed me that, Mr. Alfred Getonga had expressed his concern to him (Kiraitu) that I was investigation him because the President had told him (Mr Getonga) that ‘very serious people’ had told him that he was involved in the immigration deal. Hon. Kiraitu told me that we had to be careful that the investigation did not ‘knock our key political people’ like Alfie and Murungaru. He argued that these wee ‘key players at the very heart of government’.
7. CONCLUSIONS OF THE INVESTIGATION
13th May 2004
By the 13th of May, 2004 conclusive reports into the Anglo Leasing mater had been received from both the KACC and the Controller and Auditor General and their conclusions were in the same vein. They all pointed to a significant fraud perpetrated by Messrs. Magari, Mwaliko, Sitonik and the entity called Anglo Leasing and Finance.
Hon. Kiraitu called me that same day and told me that Hon. Mwiraria had informed him that he did not plan to table the damning Controller and Auditor General report before the Public Accounts Committee before making some ‘major changes’ at the Treasury. That same evening I had a telephone conversion with Ambassador Francis Muthaura who insisted that we should find out who Anglo Leasing really was. He suggested that we should enquire with the French printing firm FCOF. FCOF had placed a large advert in the newspapers explaining their virtues as a company and the importance of immigration passports project was to the Government of Kenya. In the week I was to receive threats over the telephone and abuse in the gutter press.
14th May 2004
On the 14th of May, 2004 a credible source advised me that all the Anglo Leasing type fictitious companies were very likely established by a man called Pritpal Singh Thethy, an accountant and engineer, who allegedly had offices in a complex owned by Anura Perera and Deepak Kamani among others. The businessman claimed that in all likelihood one of these companies that had been created in 1997 was called Anglo Leasing and Finance Co. These entities routinely won most large contrasts to supply goods and services to the security and defence sectors at hugely inflated prices. An assortment of reliable sources including from within the military indicated that Mr Perera was involved in a range of questionable projects in the defence/security sector and had developed a reputation for paying sizable kickbacks.
Your Excellency, on the 14th of May, 2004 I handed over to you my final report the Anglo Leasing matter and advised that a similar project was underway at the Police Department connected with the construction of a forensic laboratory for the CID. I added that I had heard of a range of other similar projects as well. This was at around 17:30hrs. Once I arrived home, at me the Anglo Leasing had contacted him and had assured him that they werer going to repay the money, which he described as a great success.
I later contacted the Central Bank for proof that the money had been repaid and they sent over a transmission sheet that showed that Anglo Leasing and Finance, from their bank account at Schroder & Co Bank AG in Zurich had ‘refunded’ Euro 956,700 on 14-05-04. The transaction was Anglo Leasing contract.
I pointed out that Ms. Achapa had never been considered a suspect by the KACC Ambassador did, however, admit to me that on the morning Magari and Mwaliko came into his office for him to communicate their suspension to them, that both had totally denied any knowledge of Anglo Leasing and Finance which even he said he found preposterous. Indeed, up until this time there was no government official who claimed knowledge of who Anglo Leasing and Finance were.
8. REACTIONS
17th May 2004
In the afternoon of the same day Hon. Kiraitu Murungi stepped into my office unannounced. He expressed concern about the way the Anglo Leasing investigation was going on. He told me ‘people’ were concerned whether I appreciated the political costs of my work’. He told me that it was hoped once the Anglo Leasing paid back the money the investigation would stop. Hon. Mwiraria dropped in on me in the same afternoon. He warned that Mr. Jimmy Wanjigi had sworn to kill me; and just as Kiraitu had suggested earlier, he expressed the hope that the immigration investigation would stop since the money had now been paid back. He expressed concern that he’d heard I was ‘investigating’ him, Hon. Murungaru and even Brig. Boinett.
9. ANURA PERERA
On the evening of 17th of May, 2004, I attended a meeting at the office of the Governor of the Central Bank, Andrew Mullei, together with Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, Philip Murgor the Director of Public Prosecutions and Nicholas Kamwende the head of the Banking Fraud Department of the Central Bank. As we left the meeting Kiraitu leant over and warned me that ‘they’ were thinking of attacking me through my father.
On the 20th of May, 2004, Hon. Kiraitu Murungi called me to his office in the late afternoon. He warned me that I needed to ‘go easy’ on ‘our friends’ Murungaru and Alfie in particular Hon. Kiraitu pulled out a file given to him by the lawyer (A.H.) Malik. Mr. Malik was a lawyer from whom my father had borrowed money in mid-1990s to purchase a piece of land in the outskirts of the city. Kiraitu said that Malik had informed him that the person who had really lent money to my father to purchase a piece of land in Kitisuru almost 10 years before was Anura Perera through Malik. Indeed, he informed me that Mr. Perera had called him about the matter and that Perera was in the good books of the system. The message Hon. Kiraitu was communicating very directly to me was that Mr. Perera wanted me to ‘turn off the heat’ so that the Kitisuru matter can be ‘settled amicably’. Malik claimed to Kiraitu that my father ‘knew very well’ that the initial loan came from Perera and therefore I was by extension somehow complicit in the affairs of Perera. Hon. Kiraitu emphasized the nervousness of Alfie Getonga and Hon. Murungaru with what I was doing and the risk of a major political fallout as a result. He said, ‘you know we have lost Keriri already, if Chris is dropped and Alfie is dropped – we’re in trouble, the enemy will have won.’ I declined to cooperate and said the matter would be dealt with in court. A lawyer friend, the late Ishan (Kapila) called me later and said Muin Malik (son of A.H. Malik) had dropped in on him – frightened saying that I knew who the ‘real principal’ was on the Kitisuru transaction and I therefore ‘needed to be considerate’. Within the Kapila firm my father’s matter was being handled by Ishan’s elder brother, Sheetal.
10. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
24th May 2004
In an afternoon session I appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on the Anglo Leasing affair based on the report of the Controller and Auditor General of May 13, 2004.
After my meeting with the PAC I visited a senior politician who had been seeking for us to have a chat. I was aware that he was in close contact with both Hon. Murungi and Hon. Murungaru had calculated that being a friend of my father he may communicate to me messages that perhaps the two leaders may have wanted to emphasize to me. His advice to me was to be particularly careful because there was no way senior ministers were not involved in the Anglo Leasing matter. He warned me that “Murungaru would not let you destroy them, they will kill you first”. He emphasized repeatedly that my security was now an issue and he hoped that I would take more of a back seat in the Anglo Leasing investigation. He also warned me quite logically that if the stability of the regime was threatened by my work then the President would stop backing me. He sincerely commiserated with me regarding my dilemma – that of finding that the President’s closest associates are deeply involved in the corruption that had been uncovered within our administration. He told me Alfie Getonga was going around complaining openly about my work; Hon. Kiraitu was accusing me of working for foreigners and Murungaru was threatening my life directly. His final piece of advice was that I needed to visit the President together with my father and advise him of my dilemma. I left this meeting rather puzzled.
Your Excellency, on that night I briefed you on how the PAC session had gone and the fact that Hon. Kiraitu had indicated to me that in every likelihood Hon. Murungaru and Alfred Getonga were behind the Anglo Leasing matter.
Tuesday, 25th May 2004
On Tuesday, 25th May 2004 Ambassador Francis Muthaura called me to question the legal authority of the KACC to conduct the immigration investigation; he even queried if the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act was a reasonable piece of legislation at all. He said it was defective because it granted too much power independence to the KACC. The previous day, Gideon Mutua, the Director of the KACC informed me that Muthaura had also called him with the same questions regarding his authority to conduct the investigations. Ambassador Muthaura also expressed surprise that the Office of the President had entered into a contract for USD 55 million with Anglo Leasing to provide a forensic laboratory for the CID department which he claimed had recently come to his attention.
Later the same day, after a briefing lunch for the diplomatic community Dave Mwangi the PS in Hon. Murungaru’s docket called me for a meeting which I attended. He adopted an advisory tone. He claimed that he wanted to speak frankly and conceded that the immigration investigation had caused a lot of political disquiet. He observed that the affair threatened to destabilize the government. He said that Hon. Murungaru and others he did not name were very concerned about whether or not I appreciated the political implications of my investigations. I also asked Dave Mwangi to provide me with a copy of the forensic laboratory contract and he agreed. He pointed out that the contract had already been signed in 2001 by Zakayo Cheruiyot PS – Internal Security and PS - Finance, Mwagazi Mwachofi. In this contract Anglo Leasing Finance Company used a completely different address.
11. ANGLO LEASING’S FORENSIC LABORATORIES CONTRACT
Thursday, 27th May 2004
Former Finance PS, Joseph Magari appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on the 27th of May, 2004 and told parliament that Anglo Leasing had already been doing work (since 2001) for the Office of the President, building a forensic laboratory for the CID as a way of explaining why he had not bothered to do a proper due diligence of them.
The next day I spoke to Dave Mwangi who told me that he and Ambassador Muthaura had discussed the forensic laboratory contract and decided to deal with the matter ‘administratively’ because even though the contract had been signed in 2001, no work had actually been done to date. By this time we had already discovered that despite no work being done roughly USD 5 million had nevertheless been paid to them. I had been advised by an assortment of sources that the resurrection of this project under our administration had been engineered by the likes of Deepak Kamani, Jimmy Wanjigi, Chris Murungaru, Dave Mwangi, Alfred Getonga, Mr C. Oyula the Financial Secretary, among others.
Your Excellency we had opportunity to discuss these issues later the same day. In the 2001 forensic labs contract Anglo Leasing had used a different address and we had not been able to locate them at that address either. From my notes it is clear that I spoke to Muthaura sometime that day and he assure me that he had briefed H.E. the President fully on the Anglo Leasing forensic project. On Saturday, 29th May, 2004 I met again with Your Excellency and was surprised when you advised me that no one had briefed you on the forensic laboratory project. You asked me to furnish you with a copy of the contract which I did. On Monday, 31st May 2004 I met with Ambassador Muthaura in his office. At this meeting he informed me that he had fully briefed H.E. the President on the forensic project matter and it had been agreed that (i) all payments be stopped (ii) we find out who Anglo Leasing is. I was admittedly confused by this because Your Excellency had been emphatic the day before that you had not been briefed on this matter.
12. MAGARI’S POSITION
Monday 1st June 2004
On Monday the 1st June, 2004 a close friend informed me that he had met with Joseph Magari who had been keen to explain his role in the Anglo Leasing matter. Magari had supposedly claimed that, in effect, ‘Anglo Leasing was Muthaura, Mwiraria and Awori’. Magari claimed that it was Awori who took advantage of American terrorism-related fears to expand what was a small project into a cash cow. According to Magari, Awori had done this with Mwaliko, but without informing Ole Ndiema the Principal Immigration Officer. Awori had then pulled Muthaura and Mwiraria into the scheme. Magari, according to my friend, pointed out that Awori was the most frightened. I took this information no further and decided to wait and see what KACC would come up with considering that Mr. Magari had not shared any such information with them to date.
13. WHO IS ANGLO LEASING?
On the night of the 2nd of June 2004, I met with both Hon. Mwiraria and Hon. Kiraitu at Hon. Mwiraria’s office. At this meeting Hon. Kiraitu admitted that he had been surprised to realize just ‘how high up’ the Anglo Leasing matter reached in the Government. He admitted that he had not realized how high up and just how intricately involved members of our own administration were with Anglo Leasing. He told me that Alfred Getonga had not stopped badgering him about my Department’s pursuit of the Anglo Leasing matter even after the monies had been repaid and that he realized Anglo Leasing was in effect ‘us’. Hon. Kiraitu admitted that his greatest fear was that Raila Odinga knew exactly who was behind Anglo Leasing and would use it to paint Kibaki government as corrupt – something we would never recover from. Kiraitu claimed that he had also raised the corruption allegations with Hon. Murungaru who had never responded conclusively.
On the 3rd of June, 2003, I wrote to Ambassador Muthaura confirming that the British High Commissioner had in turn confirmed in a letter dated 03-06-04 that the purportedly British company – Anglo Leasing and Forensic Laboratories Ltd did not exist. I rushed the letter off by hand. That evening Muthaura called me to tell me that the contents of my letter both ‘shocked’ and ‘frightened’ him. The next day I wrote to the Governor of the Central Bank asking him to stop all further payments to the entity known as Anglo Leasing Finance Company Ltd until pending investigations were completed. In my letter I had requested that he respond on the record on the issue of money transfers to Anglo Leasing.
During the week of June 5, 2004, the Financial Secretary J.M. Oyula when being questioned by the PAC about the Immigration Anglo Leasing Project had like Magari admitted to the forensic one. It was late reported in the press that he had admitted to some of the payments perhaps having been made by mistake (Daily Nation of Tuesday, June 15, 2004).
At around this time a source of mine provided my with an unreferenced letter from the Governor of the Central Bank to Joseph Oyula dated May 14, 2004 that sought clarification with regard to a number of suppliers’ credits and external commercial loans. Specifically, the Governor was seeking confirmation that the Minister of Finance had indeed given authorization for the payment of the following credits as required by law.
Payee Purpose Amount (millions) Signatories Date signed
1. Anglo Leasing Forensic Lab – CID USD 54.56 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 16-08-01
2. Silverson Establishment Security vehicles USD 90 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 16-08-01
4. Apex Finance (addendum 2) Police Security USD 30 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 09-02-02
5. LBA Systems Security- met USD 35 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 07-06-02
6. Apex Finance (addendum 3) Police Security USD 31.8 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 14-06-02
7. Universal Satspace Satellite Services USD 28.11 PS – Treasury
PS – Transport 11-07-02
8. First Mechantile Police Security USD 11.8 PS – Treasury
PS – Transport 11-07-02
9. Apex Finance Corp Police Security USD 12.8 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 12-07-02
10. LBA Systems Prisons Security USD 29.7 PS – Treasury 19-11-02
11. Nedemar Security USD 36.9 PS – Treasury
PS – Transport 19-11-02
12. Midland Bank Police Security USD 49.65 PS – Treasury 29-05-03
13. Navigia Capital Oceanographic vessel EUR 26.6 PS – Treasury 15-07-03
14. Empressa Oceanographic vessel EUR 15 PS – Treasury 15-07-03
15. Euromarine Oceanographic vessel EUR 10.4 PS – Treasury 15-07-03
16. Infotalent Police Security EUR 59.7 PS – Treasury
PS – Internal Security OP 19-11-03
17. Apex Finance Corp Police Security EUR 40 PS – Treasury
PS Internal Security OP 17-12-03
18. Ciara Systems Inc Design, maintain satellite for NSIS USD 44.56 PS Treasury Director NSIS 20-10-04
In a letter dated 21-05-04 Ref: ZZ36/183/02 Oyula had responded to the Governor saying “please receive copies of the Minister’s authority for contract signature of the list attached. Those we don’t have at the moment will be forwarded to you as soon as we find them from our files”. The list was as follows:
Payee Purpose Amount (millions) Signatories Date signed
1. LBA Systems Security-met USD 35 FST (FST presumably meaning Financial Secretary Treasury) 07-06-02
2. Sound Day Corp in the Central Bank list this was referred to as Apex Finance (addendum 3) Police Security USD 31.8 FST/PSOP
PSOP presumably standing for Permanent Secretary Office of the President 14-06-02
3. Universal Satspace Satellite Services USD 28.11 FST/PS – Transport 11-07-02
4. First Mechantile Police Security USD 11.8 FST/PS – Transport 11-07-02
5. Apex Finance Corp Police Security USD 12. 8 FST/PSOP 12-07-02
6. LBA Systems Prisons Security USD 29.7 FST 19-11-02
7. Nedemar Security USD 36.9 FST/ PS – Transport 19-11-02
8. Midland Bank Police Security USD 49.65 PS/PSOP
PST presumably meaning Permanent Secretary Treasury 29-05-03
9. Navigia Capital Oceanographic vessel EUR 26.6 PST 15-07-03
10. Empressa Oceanographic vessel EUR 15 PST 15-07-03
11. Euromarine Oceanographic vessel EUR 10.4 PST 15-07-03
12. Infotalent Police Security EUR 59.7 PST/PSOP 19-11-03
13. Apex Finance Corp Police Security EUR 40 PST/PSOP 17-12-03
1.4 Ciara Systems Inc Design, maintain satellite for NSIS USD 44.56 PST/Director (NSIS) 20-10-04
I was surprised by the extent of the contracts.
14. FRED OJIAMBO
On the 11th of June, 2004 PS Dave Mwangi called me at 20:20HRS to complain that lawyer Fred Ojiambo, a senior partner at Kaplan and Stratton had been arrested and if he spent the night in police cells it would cause ‘problems’. The decision to arrest Ojiambo had been taken by KACC because he had steadfastly refused to honour all summons even if simply to share with the authorities the identities of the clients (Anglo Leasing) who were instructing him to put adverts in the Kenyan press. Whatever the identity of the owners/companies and clients of Anglo Leasing there can be no doubt that Ojiambo was acting as their lawyer. Indeed, on the 11th of June, 2004 Hon. Kiraitu Murungi called me sounding agitated and told me that Hon. Chris Murungaru had called him while on an overseas trip in the UK to ask what was happening with regard to the Ojiambo matter. He said he would drop in on me later that day. Just as I put down the phone Hon. David Mwiraria stepped into my office and announced that Anglo Leasing had paid back all the money they had been paid on the Forensic Laboratories contract since 2001.
Hon. Mwiraria claimed to have spoken to Your Excellency the President and claimed that you felt we needed to ‘go easy’ on the matter since the money had been paid back and if it came to public light that there was another corrupt deal of this magnitude in our administration this would cause problems. Hon. Kiraitu walked into my office and said the same thing. Hon. Kiraitu emphasized that if we went after Anglo Leasing our government would fall and he added that Hon. Nyachae had called him that morning to express same broad sentiments especially following the arrest of Ojiambo. Both Ministers pushed me hard to back off or the government would be undone by the fight against corruption since now it was clear, as we noted “that many of our people were involved”. Over these days Hon. Mwiraria, PS Dave Mwangi, Hon. Murungaru, Hon. Nyachae and Hon. Murungi all directly or indirectly opposed the arrest of Ojiambo ostensibly on the grounds that he might implicate senior people in the government and cause it to fall. Your Excellency, that the arrest of a mere lawyer even one of Ojiambo’s stature could bring down the Kenya Government sounded utterly ludicrous to me. The disdain with which Ojiambo treated the KACC including his refusal even to acknowledge it indicated to me that he enjoyed protection from senior officials in the state. Had this not been the case, he would at least have met with the KACC and invoked client-attorney privilege and declined to answer any further questions on the transactions themselves but reveal the identity of his clients.
While all this was happening, I had been gently reminding Andrew Mullei, Governor of the Central Bank, to provide me with a report on the forensic contract – particularly on the payment vouchers. For whatever reason, he was equivocating on this. Hon. Mwiraria said it was he that had held the Governor back. Governor Mullei had told me that I would get my report later in the day from the Minister directly.
That Friday afternoon I accepted that we had probably reached an important watershed with the fight against corruption within our own administration. My secretary then called me (this was in the afternoon and I was out of the office) and told me that Hon. Mwiraria had arrived at my office with a letter from Governor Mullei but them returned after a few minutes and taken it back and said he was delivering it directly to H.E. the President.
15. ANGLO LEASING MYSTERY
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Your Excellency, on the morning of Saturday 12th June, 2004 we discussed the entire Anglo Leasing investigation. I explained that the passports investigation – the local aspects of it at least – was nearly ending and after this we would go into the international phase which would require us to crack the foreign bank accounts of Anglo Leasing Finance Company.
I advised you, Sir that we could charge the suspects in the case and that the only suspect missing was Anglo Leasing and Finance Company which had returned the ‘evidence’ of Ksh. 91 million. Your Excellency, you asked me who I believed was behind Anglo Leasing and Finance and, I told you that in my convinced opinion the Hon. Vice President, Hon. Murungaru, Alfred Getonga, Hon. Mwiraria, former PS/Magari, Financial Secretary Oyula, former PS/Mwaliko and perhaps Hon. Kiraitu knew who Anglo Leasing were. This was especially the case because Hon. Kiraitu admitted to me the involvement of Hon. Murungaru and Mr Alfred Getonga for example on the 11th of June, 2004.
Your Excellency, in the course of this conversation you asked me again, “Who knows about this matter?” I responded to your agreement that they were mostly locals and concluded even “some of our own people including the Vice-President, Murungaru, Alfred Getonga, Magari, Mwaliko, Oyula and Onyonka (the head of debt management department at the Treasury).” I remember, Your Excellency, that I proceeded as well to inform you that we probably had several other odd contracts in the security sector.
16. THE UNRAVELLING OF THE MATTER
That evening a journalist with the East African Standard called me and told me that he had heard that the passports investigation had ground to a halt because I had ‘orders from above’ to stop pursuing it. I denied this. He also, to my considerate alarm, told me that he knew all about the Anglo Leasing forensic laboratories project and that it had been included in the budget David Mwiraria had read on the previous Thursday, June 10, 2004. I checked with Hon. Mwiraria through Hon. Kiraitu and was informed that this was not true.
Sunday, June 13th 2004
The Sunday Standard headlined with the story that the government had even put Anglo Leasing into the budget. Hon. Mwiraria denied this when I had called to ask him. I later established that it was indeed the case when I obtained a copy of the budget estimates book myself. I called Hon. Kiraitu and told him that the Ministry of Finance had allocated Ksh. 222,530,000 to be paid to fictitious company in the coming financial year.
The evidence J Oyula had given before the Public Accounts Committee at the beginning of the month was only coming into the public domain. The minister of Roads and Public Works Raila Odinga also called me on Monday the 14th of June, 2004 and announced to me that since his Ministry had also been mentioned by Oyula in his testimony according to the newspaper reports, he would also be ordering an investigation within his own ministry. Hon. Odinga’s Permanent Secretary Erastus Mwongera, also called me and informed me that he had been ordered to compile a report on the forensic laboratory and role of the Ministry of Roads, Public Works and Housing in it. Hon. Kiraitu also called and told me that the revelations had ‘shocked’ him.
17. KAMANI PAYS BACK KSH. 400 MILL
I went to see Hon. Mwiraria late that morning and found him looking upset. He told me he was in the process of preparing a parliamentary statement on the two Anglo Leasing projects for him to make in parliament the next day. I warned the Honourable Minister that we needed to investigate all other suppliers’ credit payments that NARC had entered into in respect of security contracts because it was not unlikely that we were at times paying for thin air. I was particularly concerned about entities like Silverson Forensic that were also in the budget and for which hundreds of millions had been allocated and yet my information was that they did not exist and were not delivering anything anyway. I took the opportunity to ask Hon. Mwiraria for my letter from the Governor of the Central Bank that had been the subject of numerous reminders, and that the Governor had indicated had been transmitted through him. Hon Mwiraria informed me that he had forwarded the letter to the President. Hon. Mwiraria also informed me that the forensic laboratories ‘payback’ of around Ksh. 400 million had been made only after he had asked Oyula to pick up the phone and call Deepak Kamani. It was after this call that the money was then returned. To me this was a startling admission. Hon. Kiraitu telephoned me and asked me to help ‘rescue’ Mwiraria but, in truth, if Mwiraria knew Kamani was behind everything and people in his office were calling him (Kamani) comfortably then clearly he knew more than had eve been made known to the Controller and Auditor General or the KACC.
18. MERLYN KETTERING
Tuesday June 15, 2004
Before I went to work one of my sources called me and told me my ‘digging around’ the Anglo Leasing matter had caused another ‘Anglo Leasing company to pay back over Ksh. 500 million’. I was informed that the name of the company was Infotalent Ltd, another fictitious company linked to the Kamanis.
As the Anglo Leasing investigations had progressed, it had become clear that one individual, an American called Dr. Merlyn Kettering was the consultant/advisor on all the lucrative security and computerization projects that the government was engaged in. He was involved, for example, in the Police forensic laboratory project having been retained as a consultant by Anglo Leasing and Finance Company. He had even attended some meetings and signed some documents on their behalf.
Wednesday 16th June, 2004
I received information that Kettering, even as we and the KACC investigated Anglo Leasing and its associated deals, was involved in yet another project at the Office of the President, this time to create a ‘unified national security telecommunication backbone network’.
The information showed that Dr. Kettering attended meetings at the Office of the President to discuss this project together with other top security sector officials. In minutes of these meetings he was described as a Telecommunications or Management Consultant. The KACC in their investigations had dug up this curious individual as well. He seemed to attend highly sensitive security meetings.
On the same day, Ms Jacinta Mwatela (then senior and highly respected official of the Central Bank, who was later appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank) was dispatched to my office to deliver to me the letter that the Governor had previously said he had eventually opted to transmit through the Minister of Finance. It confirmed that the Central Bank of Kenya had received USD 4,744,444.44 on the 7th June, 2004 from Schroder and Co Bank AG of Zurich on behalf of their client Anglo Leasing and Finance Company. These monies had been paid to Anglo Leasing as follows:
Payment Advice No. Amount Date Paid
073761 $ 900,000.00 23-10-2001
093736 $ 1,922,222.22 22-12-2003
093864 $ 1,922,222.22 04-03-2004
TOTAL $ 4,744,444.44
19. KAMANI PAYS BACK KSH. 500 MILL
That day a source provided me with proof that Infotalent had paid back Euro 5.2 million to the Central Bank as another source had indicated two days earlier. This was again confirmed in official documentation that I requested from the Governor of Central Bank of Kenya.
I found this unsettling. First Euro 956,700 on 17-05-04 and the USD 4.7 million is repaid on 07-06-04, by a company that does not legal status and no indication from within Government on who its owners were. Only Hon. Mwiraria’s admission to me on the June 14, 2004 that J Oyula had called up Kamani who had then repaid the money gave an indication as to who Anglo Leasing was. Now another bogus company, Infotalent, had ‘repaid’ Euro 5.2 million.
Your Excellency, I informed you of these developments on this day 16th June, 2004. We agreed that we were talking about the ‘refund’ of almost Ksh. 1 billion and no one was celebrating; those making the refunds were not making themselves known; none of the civil servants involved were saying they knew who Anglo Leasing was.
Anglo Leasing refunded USD 4.7 million (Ksh 370 million) on the Forensic Laboratories project; Anglo Leasing refunded € 956,700 (Ksh. 95 million) on the Immigration security project and Infotalent Ltd refunded € 5,287,164 (Ksh. 506 million) on the E-cops Security Project.
Friday 18th June, 2004
Your Excellency we met and discussed these issues at length on the 18th June, 2004. We by now had a clear idea of who was behind the Anglo leasing deals from all the circumstantial evidence the investigators had obtained and Hon. Kiraitu’s admissions. We acknowledged, Your Excellency, who the key players in the scams were. At the time, Sir, you advised me not to hand over Magari and Mwaliko files to the Attorney General for prosecution just yet and to delay handing over the Infotalent file to KACC. From there I went to see Ambassador Muthaura (at his office) and we had a heated disagreement because he accused me of leaking the Ministry of Public Works brief on forensic laboratories project to the East African Standard who had proceeded to publish elements of it. I was furious an we argued for over an hour on the fundamentals as well of how to deal with corruption within our administration.
Monday 21st June, 2004.
On Monday June 21st, 2004 Hon. Kiraitu called me on my home land line to tell me that he and Ambassador Muthaura had been called in by the H.E. the President who wanted a statement on graft because the media were asking for the sacking of ministers which bothered him. I told Hon. Kiraitu plainly that in light of my disagreement with Ambassador Muthaura it was unlikely that we would agree on a single statement on corruption.
20. WARNING OF RESHUFFLE
Tuesday, 21st June 2004
On Tuesday 21st June, 204 I was provided with information to the effect that: Muthaura and Mwiraria were key to all the scams that we were investigating and my digging around had gone too far and they were determined to take action against me. I was provided with a brief that suggested that on June 16, 2004 between 18:30HRS and 20:30HRS J. M. Oyula, Alfie Getonga, Lee Nyachae and other Treasury officials had met to discuss ‘problematic government projects’ at a Nairobi Hotel. The most worrying project was the ongoing construction of a Navy Ship by a Spanish company called Astilleros Godan on Behalf of Euromarine which belonged to Anura Perera. The report also claimed that during the same meetings, Oyula had a telephone conversation with Perera. The report said that there was soon going to be a reshuffle and that “Mr Githongo. PS Governance and Ethics will be transferred from the office of the President. The President will be impressed on ‘not to touch’ Murungaru, Mwiraria and Kiraitu because they are the only political pillars he has.”
21. GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON GRAFT
Thursday, 23rd June, 2004
The day began with the publication of Ambassador Muthaura’s statement dated 21st of June, 2004 in a press release titled “Office of the President” – Press Release” that then went into the bureaucratic details of the forensic laboratories project. I was particularly unhappy with the publication of this statement whose language smacked a cover-up. Your Excellency, you will remember I rushed down to your office in what I shall admit was an ill-advisedly emotional mood and warned that the statement Muthaura had put out would make the government look as if we were perpetrating a cover-up. I explained that this was actually lying to the Kenyan people, because the reality was that we had uncovered information regarding the project that was in stark contrast to what Muthaura had presented in his press statement. The statement elicited a hostile response from the media, civil society, international community and the public in general. Your Excellency, you advised me not to issue a counter-statement as it would have made the Government look divided. That afternoon on the floor of the House the Minister of Finance claimed that his life had been threatened as a result of Anglo Leasing.
Sunday, 28th June, 204
On Sunday 28th June, 2004 I was summoned to State House where I found Your Excellency and Messrs. Hyslop Ipu, Ambassador Muthaura, Hon. Kiraitu, Hon. Murungaru and Hon. Mwiraria. We had a general discussion about the Anglo Leasing matter and the damaging media coverage the government was receiving as a result of this scandal. After the meeting Hyslop Ipu and I remained behind. Your Excellency, you asked about Melvyn Kettering (whose name had come up repeatedly in press reports) You also asked why British High Commissioner Clay had been so upset with Muthaura’s statement, to which I reported that I had also met Clay and could confirm that he was deeply upset with Muthaura’s statement.
Ipu and I went back down to his office to find Hon. Murungaru, Dave Mwangi and Ambassador Muthauru. The focus of our discussion became very much the Sunday Nation report of that day that had brought to public light the role of Merlyn Kettering in many of the security related projects. According to Muthaura, Mwangi and Murungaru, this had clearly upset the President and a statement was being drafted in response. At this meeting Dave Mwangi denies that Merlyn Kettering was in any way involved in the project despite having confirmed the same to me when we had spoken about it sometime in May. In my discussion with the H.E. the President and Ipu, I had confirmed that Kettering was even now involved in transactions at the Office of the President (in part because the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission) had uncovered this). I was surprised that Muthaura and Mwangi were now denying this so vehemently.
22. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
Monday, 28th June 2004
I was grilled for two-and-a-half hours by the Public Accounts Committee as part of their ongoing investigation into the Anglo Leasing sage. It seemed to me that, J Oyula, the Financial Secretary, who had appeared some days before me had given the MPs a great amount of information that the Ministry of Finance had been reluctant to share with the KACC. It became apparent to me that in Oyula’s appearance before the committee he had admitted to being in regular touch with Anglo Leasing & Finance Co. Ltd. He had apparently become angry when questioned about their bona fides. Despite this he seemed to have been reluctant to say who Anglo Leasing was and so the MPs questioned me on this issue.
Later that evening Philip Murgor the Director of Public Prosecutions called me, speaking – ostensibly – on behalf of the Attorney General; asking to be kept informed on progress vis-Ã -vis the assorted letters rogatory on the Anglo Leasing matter that had been sent out on 27-05-04. These letters had been sent out by the AG seeking to discover the beneficial holders of the Anglo Leasing bank accounts from which resources were being wired back to Kenya. We spoke again later the same evening with Murgor and he admitted that Mr. Alfred Getonga had called him and was “very disquietened by the sending of the letters rogatory and actually asked whether they could be recalled. Philip claimed tell him that this was not the kind of thing that could just be done.”
On the 29th of June, 2004 I met with Hon. Kiraitu at his office. Essentially he said that it was now clear that Anglo Leasing was ‘us’ – our people. He said that no matter what, he did not have what it took to order or countenance the arrest of Chris Murungaru for corruption because they had too much ‘history’. He was blunt and emotional. He admitted that people like Murungaru were key to the transactions of Anglo Leasing and even though he personally did not have the details, the excuse given to him was that the money was needed for political fund raising. He said that pressure was high for me to be moved to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Muthaura’s name was used as the one behind the push though.
23. RESHUFFLE
Wednesday, 30th June, 2004
On Wednesday 30th June, 2004 H.E. the President announced on television that I had been transferred from the Office of President to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. I started packing to move out of State House. That night Mr. Stanley Murage, among others, called me insisting that what had happened was not the ‘real thing’.
Thursday, 1st July 2004
I arrived at the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs at 11:30HRS for my meeting with Hon. Kiraitu to be inducted into my new Ministry. He told me that he had done all he could to try save me but Hon. Murungaru, Alfie Getonga, Hon. Mwiraria and Ambassador Muthaura had convinced H.E. the President that I had to be moved. I told Hon. Kiraitu that I was angry because I knew I was being demoted because of doing my job by pursuing the Anglo Leasing matter relentlessly and that this left a very bitter taste in my mouth. While we spoke, Mr. Stanley Murage called and told me that it was urgent that we spoke in the morning because the ‘transfer’ had not been sanctioned by the President. This sounded ridiculous and I dismissed it.
Friday, 2nd July, 2004
I eventually made it to the office at State House at past 10:00HRS in the morning and was surprised to find Mr. Stanley Murage in my office. He repeated the bizarre story that he had told me the night before – that someone had surreptitiously inserted my name into the wrong place in the President’s speech and therefore my transfer was not meant to have happened at all. Your Excellency, I came to your office at 16:15HRS and found Mr. Stanley Murage there. I informed you of the developments and realized you were shocked by them. You then reversed the transfer. We met again the next day and explored who could have amended your statement to effect my transfer. We also discussed Mr Merlyn Kettering who seemed to have disappeared but still being sought after by our authorities. I remember informing Your Excellency that surely Boinett of NSIS, Murungaru and his PS Dave Mwangi could track down this man because all their departments had been working with him for some time. I also used this opportunity to point out that J. Oyula the Financial Secretary, was also at the center of the corruption network at the Ministry of Finance.
When we met the next day, Your Excellency you raised the issue of Merlyn Kettering again and I informed you that the KACC were still hunting him and that it was clear that the man was at the heart of the entire national security network. You also assured me that we would get to the bottom of the saga about who had changed the reshuffle statement. On that day, Sir, you also asked me to look into ‘the boats’ that the Navy was building – a project linked to the arms dealer Anura Perera. You seemed intrigued to hear more about this project that I had raised with you a number of times because military officers had in turn taken to complaining to me about it.
On the 6th of June, 2004 Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, stepped into my office looking exhausted. He blamed Muthaura and Hon. Murungaru for the botched attempt to demote me. He said he had advised against it but they had not listened.
24. LEAVE
I took a week off work and returned on Monday July 19. One of the first things I did on that day was attend a meeting with Hon. Kiraitu Murungi at his office. Also in attendance was Gideon Mutua of the KACC who had been asked to produce a chronology of the Anglo Leasing matter. Kiraitu wanted us to work together to produce a parliamentary statement for him. Naturally the statement would make no mention of the fact that the whole Anglo Leasing matter was driven by his cabinet colleagues. While I had been on leave, a person by the name M. Gruring had sent a fax to Ambassador Muthaura from Switzerland – totally unsolicited it would seem – claiming to be the Managing Director of Anglo Leasing. This confirmation appears to have satisfied Ambassador Muthaura but the Government was met with overwhelming public skepticism when it was announced.
Also on July 19th 2004, I called the Governor of Central Bank, Andrew Mullei and asked him about the return of Euro 5.2 million by Infotalent. He confirmed that this – still unidentified entity – had indeed refunded Euro 5,287,164 (Ksh 509,616,520) on or around June 16, 2004.
25. ANGLO LEASING STORM
By this time, the Anglo Leasing matter had become a national storm. The diplomatic community led by the British High Commissioner Edward Clay who even visited the President on the July 20, 2004 and spent two hours with him. The meeting had been instigated by Minister Musikari Kombo. The overwhelming donor support for me and my office caused me tremendous discomfort but I had to live with it. At this time, interestingly, I came under renewed pressure to issue a statement on Anglo Leasing – essentially one that would say that ‘all was OK’. On the 22nd of July we sat with Hon. Kiraitu in my office and in an atmosphere of great discomfort attempted to craft a statement based on the chronological report that Gideon Mutua had produced. He insisted that I should issue the final draft but I again refused – it was too ridiculous and I was convinced that Kenyans would laugh in my face.
By the beginning of August, 2004 I had confirmed that during our tenure in government we had signed about USD 277 million worth of contracts of the Anglo Leasing kind. KANU signed USD 443.36 million between 2001 and late 2002. I will admit, Your Excellency, to being slightly troubled during this time because H.E. made a number of public pronouncements seeking evidence before action on graft. This was despite the fact individuals like Hon. Murungi had admitted to me openly that the issues being investigated by the KACC were engineered by the likes of Hon. Murungaru and Alfred Getonga. During the first week of August I spoke to PS/Dave Mwangi about Infotalent and this time interestingly he failed to admit as he had previously done that he had signed the Infotalent contract. He also gave me a special document titled ‘Summary: Security Contracts Under Special Purpose Financing Vehicles In The Office Of The President’ listing all the contracts in the security sector and their projects. This was apparently the document that had been prepared for the President for the meeting that had taken place at State House on Sunday June 28, 2004.
I found it interesting that they had chosen to wait over one month before sharing with me a document whose contents – especially some of the suspect projects – I had been chasing for months. This document openly admitted the involvement of Deepak Kamani, Merlyn Kettering and others in a range of projects. Yet to my frustration no civil servant or politician had ever publicly owned up to Kamani being involved in any deal by name, indeed, we had even asked Kenyans to believe that a Swiss fellow called Gruring was the key operator behind Kamani’s deals. The document showed that for some reason a number of contracts had been ‘cancelled in consultation with the Treasury’. Coincidentally these cancellations were of all the egregious contracts that were the subjects of my Department’s interest and which I felt needed to be handed over to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.
26. MWAGAZI MWACHOFI: PUTTING MATTERS IN CONTEXT
Monday, 9th August, 2004
At the beginning of August I traveled to the United Kingdom and once in London made telephone contact with Mwagazi Mwachofi who had been Permanent Secretary during 2001 when many of the KANU-era security contracts I was grappling with were signed. He was a man with a good reputation and was obviously keen to clear his name on these matters. I shall not go into the details of his description of the tortured manner in which the contracts were eventually entered into in 2001. However, the British Merchant Bankers Lazard Brothers who had been hired to scrutinize this commercial debt – partly to fulfill an IMF conditionality – had concluded that they had ‘difficulties finding the listed creditors’. Mr Mwachofi informed me that they (Lazard Brothers) scrutinized the contracts “but could not find the creditors/banks/suppliers – some of them did not seem to exist. This seemed suspicious and caused us to doubt the integrity of the Forensic Laboratories contract”, said Mwachofi. According to Mwachofi the visiting IMF mission later that year also questioned the contracts because it became clear these were financing leases being treated as debt and not part of the operating costs of the Ministry. On this matter Mwagazi concluded that the “Office of the President said that security suppliers operate mysteriously behind the shadows.”
27. ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS PAYBACK
Sometime toward the end of August Dave Mwangi called me and told me that one of the non-existent companies involved in the security procurement had paid back their commitment fee that had been paid to them in 2001. He invited me to send a messenger to his office to pick up the cheque which I did. It was a cheque drawn on ‘Silverson Forensic cheque No. 02602 for USD 910,000 dated 01-07-04 drawn on a bank in Liechtenstein Landsbank AG in favour of the Perm. Secretary Off. O the Pres., The Government of Kenya’. Altogether over Ksh. 1 billion had been repaid.
In the last days of August Mr Anura Perera reached out once again seeking to ‘negotiate in neutral space’ because I was ‘holding up’ his payments. I asked his lawyers to put this offer of a meeting in writing and they did. I declined the meeting. On September 1st 2204, at a donor coordination meeting, the Minister of Finance announced the start of a forensic audit of security procurement by the Controller and Auditor General.
1st September, 2004
On the 1st of September, 2004 Hon. Kiraitu called me and shared with me his concern that at the rate we were going ‘we would have another Goldenberg-type scandal before the elections’ in 2007 because of the need to fund raise for the elections. He said that if one’s pig got stuck in the mud one had to jump in and get dirty to extract the pig from the mud and someone one would get stuck in the mud themselves. He said that in fact there would be another Goldenberg style Commission and all of us would be ‘suspects’ or ‘witnesses’ at it. We actually laughed about the coming Goldenberg scam 2006. It was a very surprising admission from Kiraitu about corruption and ‘us’. The next day Hon. Kiraitu Murungi and I had a long meeting about political party financing. I expressed to him my disquiet at the contradictions caused by the fact that we were fighting corruption on one side and this fight was in direct contradiction with the supposedly ‘resource mobilisation’ efforts of people like Hon. Murungaru and others. In our discussion on political party funding with Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, he admitted Anglo Leasing and other deals were essentially part of resource mobilisation’ carried out essentially by Hon. Murungaru and Alfred Getonga. He repeated his fear that he expected another Goldenberg type scandal to be generated from our struggle to hold together the coalition. Both implicitly and explicitly he had indicated the H.E. the President knew about all these shenanigans.
28. GLOBOTEL AND OTHERS
4th September 2004
I met with the new Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance – Joseph Kinyua. We agreed that there was need for the creation of a ‘miscellaneous revenue’ account into which all the ‘repaid’ monies could be deposited. I told him that this issue had been discussed already at the Cabinet Committee Against Corruption. I had contacted the PS in the Office of the President, Dave Mwangi, about another project called Globotel worth Euro 49.6 million and which was again, of an Anglo Leasing design and for which I therefore also anticipated another ‘refund’. We also discussed the ongoing forensic audit of all these security contracts that was being carried out by the office of the Controller and Auditor General and the importance of expediting it.
7th September 2004
Your Excellency, I detailed all these issues to you on the 7th September 2004 in addition to my brief on jump-starting the economy. I also reported on the troubling refund by Silverson Forensic of USD 910,000. We agreed that the matter should be kept low profile though I feel we also agreed that at the least we should get to the bottom of all these strange goings on. I informed you. Your Excellency, that the audit by the Controller and Auditor General of the security contracts was critical because it would allow us as a government to remove from the list, any contracts that were plainly fictitious or ridiculously over-inflated. I advised that there was potential for the country to save a great deal of money on this.
29. DR PETER EIGEN & ADVICE FROM A MINISTER
8th October, 2004
The Chairman of Transparency International Dr Peter Eigen, who was in town for the Transparency International Annual Membership Meeting that preceded the international anti-corruption conference came to State House to meet H.E. the President.
20th October 2004
By the 20th of October 2004 the list of suspect contracts by fictitious companies grew by the day although the cast of characters was the same. Mr Evan Mwai, the Controller and Auditor General was proceeding with this audit of security contracts and I was encouraging him where I could. On October 21, 2004 we met with the Treasury PS/Joseph Kinyua and we discussed this audit among other issues. In my estimation we were sitting of roughly USD 700 million worth of contracts – some of them highly dubious. If one brought in the even murkier and more secret military ones, then the figure was over USD 1 billion. Its not as if all the money was in the pipeline to be stolen but clearly from all the circumstantial evidence, and from what I had been told by some perpetrators themselves and as H.E. the President had acknowledged to me on several occasions – we had a major graft problem and it was being perpetrated by characters within our administration.
On Sunday 24th October 2004 I met with Simeon Nyachae, the Minister of Energy who had recently returned to the country from Europe where he had undergone a hip operation. I sought his advice on my predicament. We met between 11:00HRS and 13:45HRS. We discussed the fact that high level corruption was everywhere and acknowledged that people like Hon. Murungaru were involved in Anglo Leasing. He explained that Hon. Murungaru were involved in raising Ksh. 5 billion for the next election through these schemes. Naturally, I was deeply frustrated by the limited action despite the evidence available.
30. PLANNING DEPARTURE
Thursday, 28th October 2004
By the end of October I had started the process of down-sizing my department and sending back civil servants to the departments from which they had originally hailed.
8th November, 2004
After a meeting at our offices in Cooperative Bank House, Justice Ringera remained behind. His analysis of my situation was grim and admitted that once graft reaches the President he won’t touch it. He observed that I was now a prisoner in my job because I knew too much. I was surprised when he told me that if I tried to leave ‘they’ could even kill me.
24th November 2004
On the 24th November, 2004 a nervous Evan Mwai visited my office at State House. He had insisted on coming to me instead of me going to him. He was deeply concerned that his on going audit of security-related credit agreements was revealing things that had frightened him. He also pointed out that in fact, he now feared for his personal security. This was as a result of a reply to a letter he had sent to Dave Mwangi: the reply from Mwangi with regard to the Globotel contract was incredulous; so much so that it frightened Mwai. He said he feared for his own physical security because – implicitly – Dave Mwangi as the head of internal security could cause physical harm to come to him. He then went on to relate how he had realized almost all of the contracts were similar and suspect and this frightened him. I told him to conclude this report and prepare an Executive Summary that I could give to H.E. the President. This incident was moving to me and in a certain sense the penny dropped as a result. My own position was clearly increasingly untenable. But I made up my mind to see the H.E. President one more time about the Mwai concerns that seemed so profound.
3rd December 2004
I wrote to Sammy Kyungu the Permanent Secretary at the Office of the President in charge of Defense asking for clarification on the ship the Navy was building. He called me immediately he got the letter in an agitated state saying the matter was classified and that Ambassador Muthaura would be calling me. Muthaura called and we agreed to set up an appointment to meet soon. I went to see him the next day and once there, I was surprised to find that Dave Mwangi had also been summoned to sit on the meeting. Muthaura said the navy ship matter was very sensitive and was in any event being audited by Evan Mwai. He assured me that he would hand me a report on the matter but appeared to change his mind half way through and said he would get it to me later.
Still, during that week I wrote letters to Evan Mwai the Controller and Auditor General providing him with all the information I had gathered about the purported ‘security financing companies’ he was auditing. The modus was clear: the Government had no legal recourse. It also implied an effort on the part of financiers to avoid revealing their true identities which flew against common practice by reputable international financiers. Secondly, in most of the contracts the Government started debt repayments before substantive implementation of the projects began. The implication of this was that the bogus financing companies used the Government’s money to implement the projects and then proceeded to charge interest on what are in truth fictitious loans by the Government to itself. In the majority of financing entities we found they did not exist. The navy ship linked to Mr. Anura Perera was organized under a similar arrangement as two of the ostensible financing companies did not appear to exist at their Madrid addresses.
The reports and findings by the Controller and Auditor General when all the information was analyzed concluded that there were several ‘Anglo Leasing type’ deals – in excess of USD 200 million. During the same week I spoke to Dave Mwangi about the giant Globotel project that was ostensibly for the Administration Police and was in the Anglo Leasing mould of deals. He said that Globotel deal was being investigated by an inter-ministerial committee.
4th December 2004
I met with H.E. the President before our travel to the wedding of Raila Odinga’s daughter. I gave him a nine-point agenda including discussion of my department’s future and the ongoing security contracts audit by Mwai the Controller and Auditor General.
10th December, 2004
On the 10th of December, 2004 Your Excellency we discussed the ongoing security contract audit by the Controller and Auditor General. I advised that Mwai needed to make a presentation directly to you before he made his report to the Public Accounts Committee as he was required to do under law.
31. KINYUA’S FEARS AND CONCERNS
Tuesday 14th December 2004
I went to the Ministry of Finance for a meeting with Donor Consultative Group. After this meeting I had a long meeting with Joseph Kinyua who shared with me just how terrified Mwai had become as a result of the audits he was doing into the security sector supplier contracts and what he had discovered. He told me that Mwai had discovered that a majority of them were Anglo Leasing type contracts. For the first time Kinyua enunciated his concerns about the integrity of his own minister Mwiraria, Murungaru and other key figures.
32. PRESSURE FROM ANURA PERERA
21st December 2004
On 21st of December 2004, Gen (rtd) Mahmud Mohammed came by to visit. My father had called to alert me that the General had met with him seeking an appointment with me, and was now on his way. The General told me he had just returned from London where he had undergone a heart operation. Then he got to the real point of what had brought him to see me. Anura Perera had gone to see him in hospital in London and told him I was making life difficult for him to extent that he was unable to travel to Kenya for fear of arrest and that his money was held up because of my department’s inquiries.
The General told me that Perera was a good, generous and honourable man who only sought audience with me to explain himself. To demonstrate how honest Perera was, the General told me a story of how the late Adam Ali (Financial Secretary) had died with Perera owing him Ksh. 10 million. Perera had insisted on locating the man’s wife and giving her the Ksh. 10 million. Perera’s primary complaint was the Treasury was holding up his payments and he felt I was responsible for this. From the day the retired General visited me he called either me or my father everyday.
29th December, 2004
I met with Joseph Kinyua who warned that ‘he was under pressure’ from the Minister of Finance to make payments on the Anglo Leasing type contracts that Mwai was investigating. I told him not to because it was not unlikely that some of them were entirely fictitious as we had found with others earlier in the year.
33. 2005
On the 4th of January 2005, I spoke to Evan Mwai the Controller and Auditor General who told me he was about to complete his forensic audit and that my letters to him had been of enormous help and had merely confirmed what he already knew from his own investigations – that most of the ‘financiers’ of the schemes were bogus. He did however inform me that Joseph Kinyua was under ‘tremendous pressure’ from Minister Mwiraria to pay up on some of the contracts and was hoping that the report from the Controller and Auditor General would save him from having to do this.
The next day I spoke to Mr Mwai again and he told me that Ambassador Francis Muthaura had called him directing that the bills that were pending needed to be paid even if his audit was not complete because the concerned parties were pushing for payment. He said that Hon. Mwiraria was ordering Kinyua to pay Deepak Kamani. Mwai said that from the sound of Muthaura’s voice, he too had been convinced Hon. Mwiraria that payment needed to be made. Mwai noted that Kinyua was delaying making payment until he got the report that Mwai was preparing – which in turn put the pressure to complete on Mwai. Mwai by this time had also incorporated the information I had given him in a letter dated 03-01-05 in his report. I had copied the same letter to Kinyua who sounded relieved when I called him to confirm whether he had received it. Mwai called again to point out the LBA Prisons project was one in which they had uncovered a host of irregularities and yet people were pushing for it to be paid.
34. MEETING
10th January, 2005
On the 10th January, 2005 The Daily Nation carried an interview in which I was quoted as saying that the Anglo Leasing scandal was the litmus test of our administration as far as the fight against corruption within NARC was concerned. The next day Hon. Kiraitu Murungi was quoted directly contradicting me, saying that Anglo Leasing was ‘the scandal that never was’ because the money was repaid. Your Excellency, we met that day with a detailed brief I had prepared on the security projects that Mwai was auditing. My brief showed that a majority of the entities that had been contracted to provide the finance in these projects did not exist. We discussed prosecution of the Anglo Leasing cases and the possibility of Evan Mwai the Controller and Auditor General coming in to make a direct presentation on these matters to H.E. the President.
14th January 2005
There was a cabinet meeting State House on the 14th of January, 2004. After this meeting Hon. Kiraitu came up to my office and pointed at me and said that party elections were around the corner and I was the one holding up the financing of these elections. This was clearly in reference to my work with Mwai and Kinyua. He said some of the contracts had to be paid and he, Mwiraria and I would sit and agree which ones so it’s all done ‘transparently’.
17th January 2005
I met with Hon. Kiraitu Murungi at his office from 16:30hrs. He re-iterated that party elections were on the way and Prof. Nick Wanjohi had estimated it would cost Ksh. 200 million and that this money would come from the contracts that Kinyua and I had stopped – especially Anura Perera’s matter – clearly the ships. Hon. Kiraitu demonstrated no concern that I would report this matter back to the H.E. the President.
The last time we had spoken he suggested a meeting with Mwiraria to agree on a transparent system of financing elections but (in this meeting) he said he’d organize a meeting between Chris Murungaru and me. It was a bizarre discussion with Hon. Kiraitu opening up to me in a totally unusual manner – essentially admitting the suspect contracts I had spent past year pursuing were all along schemes to raise political finance and by interfering with them I was undermining the party.
I informed him that I was uncomfortable with Anura Perera using General Mohammed to put pressure on me and he confirmed that the people who knew Perera were Hon. Murungaru and Alfred Getonga. He said he could speak to them on this. He was nevertheless clearly looking for a quid pro quo where I could somehow look for a way that the payment for Perera can be approved by me. I played possum saying I was keen not to undermine the party. But it was a final call – after this I calculated they have a few or no options left. They have bared their souls to me.
20th January 2005
I had the same conversation with Hon. Kiraitu and Hon. Murungaru. I played possum throughout. Once again they were clear that the security related projects that were subject of so much controversy were political financing purposes all along. Hon. Kiraitu and Hon. Murungaru demonstrated no concern that I would report this matter back to H.E. the President. The evidence had been building up but with this final report they let their guard down. By coming to me knowing full well I had direct access to the President meant they were not at all worried that I ‘would report them to the President’. Hon. Murungaru pointed out that H.E. the President has once been the Minister of Finance and understood how these things were done.
24th January 2005
I tendered my resignation from the UK during a trip starting on the 24th of January, 2005.
M-Pesa,
ReplyDeleteYou pesky chap, how dare you drag Dan's name in such mud? The guy is serious business and his ATHLETISM AROUND THE WAIST has delivered a breathing product, wacha fitina wewe.
The escapade must have been good relief for Dan given the political heat. At least some SHAIRI from the knowlegeable that made him promise title deed to whole of R. Tana and the crocs therein.
Dume kamili wa Tana. Although he appears to be going regional just after boastng that his kids are Pokiuks.
@Ivy,
Shiko was seen last at Weta's office canvassing to be an expertriate COOK in our Emabassy in China and she wanted it pronto - olympic ticket in disguise. Ciku deny of confirm after seeking to sell all your Safaricon shares.
Taabu si you know I love China.
ReplyDeleteM-pesa, Muriu, Mwanake, have you been refused a visa to live in UK. which part of UK is that you visited that you were spat on coz your black. Are you aware UK is the only country with a good race relation and tolerance? Yes, better than Kenya. Nobody can talk against another race openly unlike Kumekucha that delight in Kikuyu bashing. Black people mingle together with white people freely something Wazungus and Asians in Kenya can never do. Even Americans and other European countries says race relation and Muilticultaralism in UK is the best thanks to govt eduaction on race awareness.
ReplyDeleteJG, I disagree, very little has changed in the house of corruption you fought; the architecs you exposed are still in place; what we have in place is not a reconciled group of pricipals, but a truce so that both sides can stock their war chests with public loot as they scheme for 2012.
ReplyDeleteBe worried of your friends.
By the way, in Kenya today, having no position is no position at all.
Read "RETENG' AND BRIDE;" it is good company.
JRA
Mama Njeri said
ReplyDelete....race relation and Muilticultaralism in UK is the best thanks to govt eduaction on race awareness......
You must be staying in the ISLE of DENIAL. Last time I checked that was no crime, indulge.
Anon 6:17.....Only the link will do. Thank you
ReplyDeleteSwimming - Men's 100m Butterfly Qualification Rank Country Athlete Final
ReplyDelete1Milorad Cavic 50.76* (WR)
2Michael Phelps 50.87* (OR)
3ndrii Serdinov 51.10* (OR)
4 KEN Jason Dunford 51.14* (OR)
Wanjiku, what is Shiko? Did Gikuyu and Mumbi produced Shiko or Wanjiku? Be proud of yourself and drop that meaningless stupid name!
ReplyDeleteTaabu, you 'checked' but have not lived there, let the people who live there be the judge. Why do people from Caribbean, S. America, Africa, Asia and Arabs countries risk their lives to go to UK and not Germany, France, Italy or America?
@Mama Njeri,
ReplyDeleteRelax. Waht is in a name= a cluster of letters for physical tagging. Leave Shiko alone and you have no RIGHT WHATSOEVER to brand her. You are trying too hard to be an ETHNIC PURIST from without. You may new to this blog but trsut me you are not the first to feel the way you do. What is new to you may be history to others.
FYI assumptions in the mother of all ......Stop entertaining in your head what you imagine to be true-you may be dead wrong. Just a thought. Please expand the circumference of teh box and step out, won't you?
Taabu, are you Wanjiku lover or what? I have every right to correct my fellow kinsmen/women whenever I feel they are going astray. I hope in your community you respect and obey your elders because we do!
ReplyDeleteTaabu
ReplyDeleteThat race you have started you will not finish...Watch out
Mama Njeri, I love you my sister. But how did you know Taabu has not lived in the UK? I am asking this because I know you are grossly wrong. We do not all rush to say where we live because it is not important. You can defend your argument without trying to be intimidative, cant you?
ReplyDeleteThat's just a correction. Endeleeni sasa.
it seems Mama njeri and Kwale are in cahoots to promote UK tourism and attractions albeit covertly in this blog- please mama and ol' chap let us be, we are indulging in our dusty, unromantic cellulite filled, race intolerant country with all gusto and JG is welcome to do his survey on how Kumekucha is now copy and paste foundation for all and sundry including new KumekuchaS and Hakujakucha-Chris, keep driving us forward please
ReplyDeleteMama Njeri for your information, the Kenya I know is majority black, so race would not be an issue. I think you meant, ethnic relations, which at the moment are not too dandy per se.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the githeri, won't you!
Vikii's love has made mama Njeri a marked woman-ole wako some people's barks are actually better than their bite
ReplyDeleteVikki, where did I try to intimidate Taabu? Iam just a woman who have no intetion of intimidating any man. And where did I say whereabout Taabu lives?
ReplyDeleteWith the kind of English Taabu spew out here how can anyone doubt he ever lived in a country of 'hope and glory'?
The so called "accountant" IVY wants to be a cook, just for money. Kama Mzee Moi alisema, some people are REALLY cheap!!!
ReplyDeleteanon 9:52, what is the difference between a cook and an accountant? in any case, the cooks in Kenya's Missions abroad earn more than accountants i'm talking including benefits!
ReplyDeleteIvy is smart to seek greener pastures Vision 2030 or no Vision 2030!
mama njeri shut up!
ReplyDeleteMy question is:
ReplyDeleteIf IVY is really an accountant why does she aspire to go to the embassy kitchens instead of going to the international financial markets? She does not need to suffer from low self-esteem! With a reference letter from Raila, she can storm Wall Street or London financial district wearing her orange kitenge and demand for a job!!
anon 10:18 your logic is flawed-so what if accountant ivy aspires to become a chef?maybe its been her dream always to be a chef is that anyone's business? Kibaki was a lecturer in Makerere today he is lame duck president whats wrong with that?low self-esteem is within not from the job you do thats why to be poor is not a sin-please leave ivy and Raila alone why don't you focus on the post at hand?
ReplyDeleteGuys,
ReplyDeleteWhen did Ivy become the topic of today's post? Even as her hair turns grey, she attends night school. That takes courage and is to be encouraged. She is my hero and I hope some day she will be somebody who often wears a suit and not an orange kitenge 24/7.
Everybody should ignore Ivy, she is a Ugandan in disguise. Her people escaped from Idi Amin and settled in Samia, Western Province. She should be busy sorting it out with Mseveni and not Kenyans.
ReplyDeleteMight as well jump into this fiasco.
ReplyDeleteMama Njeri said: I am just a woman who have no intention of intimidating any man.
I say: You've previously come across as "Martha Karuaish". By that statement, you now sound like a hapless vegetable dealer (no offense to hardworking hapless vegetable dealers across the country).
You see, Kenya today displays 'real' women in the likes of Karua, maybe Ngilu etc. There's no excuse to succumb to the pot-bellied weight of men. Rise up my dear Kenyan women. Be confident and strong always. Let Condoleezza Rice be the heroine to your daughters. I've always liked it better when a woman stays on top.
Kalamari do you mean you like the 'woman on the top'? Funny coz someone else said he like the doggy style. It seems will all have different taste here. But I stick to the missionary.
ReplyDelete11.22 please don't drag me into such 'adult swim' talk. What I meant to say is that I admire women in top positions i.e. administratively, business etc…as in women leaders. The Hillary Clinton type. Those who refuse to remain at home cooking cookies.
ReplyDeletePlease flush that head of yours.
Kalamari, Im a missionary too. and proudly so.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kalamari!
ReplyDeleteNow That I know I have a supporter, I am going to try and bring the claws out. So watch-out you guys.
I also have a web log so feel free to check it out. There is an article I would all men to read called "sex after chilbirth".
Mama Njeri… that's an interesting topic….ebu give us a synopsis.
ReplyDeleteFolks, do you realize there's a culture in Kenya that greatly encourages the man to do (or re-do) the deed within the very hour of birth. That seemingly obnoxious act is supposed to ward off evil spirits who may penetrate a distressed womb. This is also meant to ensure that the child has a long healthy life.
Vikii, kwani wewe si msee wa 'mastingo'?
Yes he is a guest of the state just like maina njenga is , from jkia straight to kamiti for the traitor in chief.
ReplyDeleteWhy did he have to give kalonzo recognition he doesnt deserve , kalonzo is like railas echo , he can never come up with anything on his own.
ReplyDeleteKalonzo surely got undeserved recognition.
ReplyDeleteThis is one guy who wants to be president so that he can have traditional dancers sing his praise the whole day.
Give him the presidency, he won't know what to do with it. No ideas - bure kabisa.
its a good thing that JG can return to kenya to help build and possibly help identify or seal the corruption loopholes.
ReplyDeletei however reserve any excitement until the day the media will instead of publishing the title
"Githongo to return to Kenya"
they will publish the title
"True Peace, Justice, Integrity and Credibility returns to Kenya"
sweeping across leadership and institutions,
just like in 1963 for those who understood freedom (first liberation) then, and in 2002 (2nd liberation that perhaps never was) for those of us delusional enough at the time to imagine that change had come.
when that happens i will break out into song and dance. Otherwise right now i will wait and see.
anon 6:17 - would really appreciate if you could just paste the link.
mama njeri - when you say your community respects and obeys elders, am curious, how do you know that some of the anons or unique handles here are not your elders whom you should obey and respect, like say mama omondi 10:01
are there perhaps times/instances when obedience/respect become subjective. what would you do if it turned out that you in fact are the only non "elder"? would it even matter? fyi - respect is best, when earned, not bestowed but certainly cannot be through veiled threats and insinuations, no matter how mild, that would be subjugation, oppression etc,
in the meantime why dont you square it out with 10:01 then whomever turns out to be the elder can eeerr .... remain or go and the other can .... well ... eeerr.. stay or go .....
Mama Njeri for your information, the Kenya I know is majority black, so race would not be an issue. I think you meant, ethnic relations, which at the moment are not too dandy per se.
ReplyDeleteMama Njeri said [....race relation and Muilticultaralism in UK is the best thanks to govt eduaction on race awareness......] [You must be staying in the ISLE of DENIAL. Last time I checked that was no crime, indulge.]
As usual, Taabu, you're talking rubbish. Even including Kenya, the UK is the least racist country I've lived in: rates of interethnic and interracial violence are quite low; rates of intermarriage are quite high; there's a proper legal framework for handling equality and diversity issues; and ordinary people, even in the bundus, are far more welcoming than Kenyans, especially Kenyans.
As for the claim that Kenyans aren't racist, you need to talk to some Kenyan Asians. (And note well that a basic assumptions of Kenyanness is that only black Kenyans are Kenyans, hence 'Kenya has 42 tribes.')
Welcome Githongo
ReplyDeleteand do not let the thieves and thugs of Anglo leasing scare you this time!
name them and shame them and make sure you tell kenyans where all the bank accounts are located!
We hear Kibaki already got some money with his Cronies wakina Karua and Michuki from some of the first accounts that they followed up with and that is why they refused the help offered by the British and American to return the money for them to Kenyan since it belongs to the Tax payers of Kenya
Githongo no jokes this time toboa kila kitu........
Danial Waweru and Mama Njeri
ReplyDeletethis are the misplaced IDP kikuyu's abroad licking musungu ass!!keep cleaning them and stop preaching to us what is racism and tribalism!!
We all know the difference - go have a nasty Githeri brown teethed day....
Urxlnc, Thank you. But let me inform you Mama Omondi is not a "Mama" its a man who is unhappy about me and so he disguising himself inorder to to attack and insult me 'legally'. Very inscure man who feel intimidated by a woman and he can only resort in becoming a 'woman' to rival me. I dont know such a man with low self esteem you can go insulting a woman when he is in disguise.
ReplyDeleteSHAME ON YOU MAMA OMONDI!! YOU ARE A "FAGGOT"! A MAN WHO DRESS LIKE A WOMAN! Why don't you drop that name "Mama" and lets have a faceoff man to a woman.