The Day That Internal Minister Caused A Bank Crisis In Kenya: After first Kenyan woman police officer to die in the line of duty Elburgon saga

John Michuki directive triggers crisis

In his typical shoot-from-the-hip-and-ask-questions-later style, Internal security minister John Michuki has unwittingly led the Kibaki administration into yet another unnecessary crisis. This one coming in the sunset days of this administration that has broken all records in terms of self-created and self-inflicted crisis and in that respect stands head over shoulders above any other administration in the history of governance in East and Central Africa.

It all started with a daring ambush robbery of cash being transported to a bank somewhere in Elburgon last week that claimed the life of the first Kenyan woman police officer to die in the line of duty, as well as two male colleagues. Suddenly the good minister remembered that there were certain regulations in the transportation of money that have not been followed for a long time. His directives to the police concerning the transportation of cash has quickly culminated in a serious crisis.
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Michuki directed that all police officers escorting cash must henceforth wear bullet-proof vests. They must also travel in a separate car from the one transporting the cash. At first these appear to be reasonable requests. After all even as you read this, there are 3 grieving families making arrangements to bury their dead. But was this the right way to handle this situation? Apparently not, because the government does not have bullet proof vests in the necessary quantities to fulfill the wishes of the minister. So that cost as well as the cost f the extra chase cars falls back on the clients transporting the cash, which is in this case banks.

The aftermath is that virtually all armed escorts of cash in the country has ground to a halt. That means that there is a serious accumulation of cash at most banks, which in itself is a serious security risk that puts even more Kenyan lives in danger. Yesterday and this morning, top government officials were locked in meetings trying to resolve the self-created crisis.

Here is how an efficient modern government would have handled the situation. The minister should have quietly called a meeting with stakeholders and discussed how best to reduce the risks of transporting cash. Whatever directives would have been issued after that should have been implemented quietly with absolutely no press coverage. This has the huge advantage of taking any would-be highway robbers by surprise. Surprise is one of the most valuable and effective security weapons that anybody can have on their side.
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As it is now, every thug and would-be thug is receiving all the information they need for future operations first-hand and easily through the media.

The whole saga has made the internal security ministry and this government a laughing stock in security circles. By the way although bulletproof vests save lives in this case the impact would be minimal because most robberies put the thugs at close range with the guards and police escorts, which means that they can easily aim their guns at the heads of the security personnel. So apart from vests, the minister should also think of providing the officers with bulletproof helmets. And while we are at it, we might just as well supply bulletproof vests to all motorists, especially those driving in Nairobi on Fridays (the day reputed to have the highest carjackings).

Despite the good intentions, the handling of this situation has proved beyond any doubt that we have an internal security minister who does not have a full grasp of the issues let alone how security matters should be handled. Why did he just not delegate things to police commissioner Brigadier Ali?

Oh, I forgot. The last time I checked, the minister was calling a press conference to prove to the press that they are on talking terms with the police commissioner. Nobody swallowed that one.

This crisis should be solved easily in the next day or so, but what about the inevitable ones that will follow in the next 11 months?

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Most controversial past articles on John Michuki published in Kumekucha blog;

How Kibaki and Michuki planned and executed the Standard raid at State House (Kumekucha Exclusive)

Michuki's lethal shots wraps Kibaki in fraud

Dark faces behind secret No campaign by Yes camp


More about John Michuki's death

Who Will Be Kibaki's Running Mate Alias Narc Kenya Deputy Party Leader?

Narc Kenya are behaving in the sort of cocky manner that causes people to lose elections. Not satisfied with the fact that they have announced their presidential candidate, President Kibaki, they are now on the verge of naming his running mate.

All this is being done a full 11 months before the polls. A better strategy would have been to at least wait until ODM announce their presidential candidate and then name President Kibaki's running mate based on who the ODM flag bearer will be.

Incidentally for the first time in the history of Kenya, the running mate to any of the presidential candidates is going to be a critical decisive factor in deciding the outcome of the elections. This did not quite happen in 2002 because of the strategy adopted by Narc of constituting a summit that had political heavyweights from all over the country. Even if ODM adopts the same strategy this time around, in Narc Kenya, their naming of Kibaki's running mate will decide the election.

A careful analysis of the situation reveals that President Kibaki's running mate can only come from two possible provinces. Namely Western or Rift Valley. However chances are that they will be from Western. In spite of the close working relationship between President Kibaki and former President Moi, their strategy will most probably be for them to go into the elections in separate parties and Moi's intention is for his Kanu faction to sweep Rift Valley, a province that Moi knows like the back of his hand. Unfortunately the former president does not seem to realize that this is going to be virtually impossible this time around.

All the other provinces will have minimal impact. Central is the President's province and it does not make sense to name a running mate from his home turf. Nyanza is out because of Raila Odinga. North Eastern does not have the necessary numbers (there are approximately 200,000 voters registered in the whole province). Coast is too volatile currently and Eastern has Kalonzo Musyoka. A VP from Nairobi would offer minimal political mileage for the president as it appears to be split between ODM and Narc Kenya, although early indications seem to shockingly suggest that a sizeable number of the Kikuyu vote in this cosmopolitan province will go to ODM, if elections were to be held today.

The Kalonzo Musyoka You Don't Know

Kalonzo Musyoka's Bid For The Presidency: The Inside Story Part I

Today we start this series that analyzes the chances of one Kalonzo Musyoka being the fourth president of Kenya. It appears that even in his home turf, he has to overcome some major obstacles. The name of one such obstacle is shadowy figure, John Harun Mwau.


If there is anybody Kalonzo Musyoka fears as far as his presidential bid is concerned it is definitely not the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki or his fellow presidential hopeful Raila Odinga. It is in fact somebody from his very own backyard. One John Harun Mwau.

Mwau of the Mkamba Osa Finya fame, will probably not contest the presidency as he did ten years ago. However, the multi-billionaire businessman who is widely suspected to be a drug baron (see tomorrow's post where we analyze evidence pointing to this) has money literally sticking out his ears and has a strong motive to use plenty of it to stop Musyoka from ascending to the presidency.

The rivalry between Mwau and Musyoka has been going on for over ten years now but it came to a head during the infamous Kilome by-elections when Musyoka campaigned vigorously for one Mutinda Mutiso for the Kilome parliamentary seat hence denying Mwau an opportunity to go to parliament.

In spite of a high profile campaign involving helicopters and satellite phones, Mwau spent a fortune in the elections and even organized for electricity in a few towns in the constituency only to manage a paltry 2,000 votes to Mutiso's 11,000, a result many see to have been influenced by Musyoka who made several forays in the constituency to ensure that Mwau lost.

In public, Musyoka has openly castigated Mwau claiming he is a shadowy figure whose roots are not known and has even gone further to claim that the billionare is not from Ukambani and he is in fact a Kikuyu by tribe.

Many Ukambani residents believe this allegation due to the fact that Mwaus grasp for the Kamba language is wanting. Matters are made worse by the fact that the bearded businessman usually gets cagey when asked about his background or roots.

For starters, Mwau has enjoyed goodwill from both the Moi and Kibaki administration and due to the nature of the business that he does, he stands to lose everything and probably go to jail if he faces a hostile government like that of a Musyoka presidency.

Mwau's companies have been in the news for all the wrong reasons ranging from money laundering to tax evasion but these weighty matters seems to have been swept under the carpet hence most Kenyans believe that the billionaire has also made inroads into Kibaki's state house just as he did in Moi's.

It is also an open secret that Mwau is also a major arms dealer, supplying instruments of death mainly to the Congo region where war is a way of life for the mineral rich people of that vast country now ruled by Joseph Kabila.

To ensure that his consignments are never interfered with, Mwau has been contracted over the years by the government to operate an inland container depot in Athi river, in the outskirts of Nairobi known as Pepe which was in the news two years ago when cocaine drugs worth millions of dollars were cleared from the depot.

The manager, one Bobby Macharia was charged in court with drug trafficking but was later acquitted due to lack of evidence but again, that is another story for another day.

Mwau has always had political ambitions but his arrogance seems to be his stumbling block as he will never humble himself before anybody, leave alone the electorate and his popular line in politics is telling the masses that they need him more than he needs them hence they should vote for him.

He ran for the presidency in 1997 on a Party of independence candidate of Kenya PICK ticket and performed so disastrously that he did not even manage the Westlands parliamentary seat, which he was also vying for.

Mwau was to emerge later in 2000 this time claiming he was out to unitr the Kamba community and empower them, a move that earned him the wrath of the then community kingpin, the late Mulu Mutisya who ganged up with Kalonzo Musyoka to ensure that the billionaire did not make any inroads into Ukambani politics.

Mutisya and Musyoka arranged a series of rallies in Ukambani and told the attentive crowds that a bearded man would come calling with sacks of money and urged the people to take the money but not listen to him since he was a crook and the cash was "dirty money" anyway.

Apparently, the Mutisya/Musyoka propaganda machine worked like a dream as Mwau managed to attract big crowds in his political meetings but at the end of the day, lost the Kilome parliamentary seat after dishing out millions of shillings and initiating various development projects in the constituency.

Mwau has always enjoyed a very cosy relationship with Moi and his sons who have also been implicated in dealing with drugs, mainly by protecting barons like the late Ibrahim Akasha who was gunned down in the streets of Amsterdam a few years ago over what is believed to have been a deal gone sour.

There is little doubt that id Kalonzo Mustoka is elected president, John Harun Mwau will be among the first casualties of his administration. Mwau knows this just too well and will do everything in his capacity to ensure that Kalonzo does not end up in that enviable posution where he is run this country. All indications are that Mwau will not spare his vast resources in ensuring president Kibakis re-election this year.

Insiders say that Mwau visited Kibaki's State House a few times last year. One need not be a rocket scientist to figure out how the two can mutually benefit from each other.

Of late, Mwau seems to have hibernated but his people say he has struck a mega deal in Rwanda and spends most of his time there. Then again, the money laundering controversies involving John Harun Mwau's companies are still fresh on the minds of most Kenyans so naturally it wouldn’t be prudent to appear in the limelight at this juncture.

Rest assured, the last has not been heard of this shadowy and controversial figure who seems to bounce back from murky waters to spring a surprise on his detractors. Will Kalonzo be one of his victims in the run up to the Kenyan general elections 2007?

How John Harun Mwau really made his billions