An inquiry into Kenya’s biggest financial scandal to date ended in Nairobi on Thursday after nearly 300 days of hearings into how the country was defrauded of hundreds, or even thousands, of millions of dollars.
The panel probing the so-called ”Goldenberg Affair” heard testimony from 103 witnesses as it sought to get to the bottom of the scandal surrounding a bonus system created by the government in the early 1990s to encourage exports.
The hearings ended amid a firestorm of international criticism lobbed at Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s government for failing to meet anti-graft pledges and not cracking down on abuses such as the Goldenberg case.
”Our mission was to get the truth and nothing else,” said Justice Samuel Bosire, the chairperson of the inquiry. ”The task ahead of us is heavy. We need the cooperation of everybody.”
Bosire and the other commissioners will now review evidence and write recommendations to Kibaki, who will then make a decision on whether those suspected should be prosecuted or pardoned, Attorney General Amos Wako said.
Kibaki will also decide whether to seek repayment of the stolen funds, he said.
”The president will seriously consider your recommendations and implement them,” Wako told the panel.
The hearings, which lasted 294 days, never heard in person from former president Daniel arap Moi, whom some have implicated in the scandal, or about 1 500 other potential witnesses who refused to appear.
Lawyer John Khaminwa, representing the state, told the panel that the culprits in the Goldenberg scandal cannot be allowed to get away with their misdeeds because ”there is a lot of public anger”.
”Make strong, firm and bold recommendations that those involved be prosecuted, convicted and sent to prison,” he said. ”They should not serve public offices or have access to government contracts.”
”The money that was looted has to be recovered and handed over to the public,” Khaminwa said. ”There is no way they [suspects] can be exonerated, they must be held liable.”
Goldenberg International is alleged to have defrauded the state and taxpayers in the early 1990s through non-existent exports of gold and diamonds and acquired compensation.
Company boss and chief suspect Kamlesh Pattni named Moi, who retired in December 2002, and several officials in his government as the chief planners of the rip-off. — Sapa-AFP