A former intelligence chief and three other former high-ranking Kenyan officials suspected of involvement in Kenya’s biggest financial scandal were brought to a magistrate’s court on Friday, but their lawyers prevented them from entering a plea.
President Mwai Kibaki’s administration has initiated fresh prosecutions in the affair — known as the Goldenberg scandal after the company at its centre — following pressure to act on previous and current corruption cases.
The Goldenberg scandal took place in the early 1990s during the notoriously corrupt administration of former President Daniel arap Moi.
In February 2003, attorney general Amos Wako halted all prosecutions related to the Goldenberg scandal to allow a judicial inquiry Kibaki ordered.
Before charges could be read out in court on Friday, defence lawyers argued it would be unfair for their clients to plea because the High Court is still considering a petition about related cases.
A charge sheet seen by The Associated Press says in total six people and Goldenberg International Ltd face three counts of conspiracy to commit a felony to steal and defraud Kenya’s treasury of a total of 5,8-billion shillings between April and July 1993.
The six people include the two owners of Goldenberg International Ltd, Kamlesh Pattni and James Kanyotu, who served under two presidents as Kenya’s intelligence chief for over 20 years.
Kanyotu made his first appearance in court, since the Goldenberg scandal became public in the 1990s, on Friday.
Nairobi chief magistrate Aggrey Muchelule released the four suspects on bail of 10-million shillings each ($138 888) and said he will make a ruling Monday.
Muchelule ordered police to arrest Pattni and bring him to court later on Friday, after Pattni’s lawyers said that their client could not appear in court because he was hospitalised with an undisclosed illness. Pattni had claimed illness several times during previous cases and during the inquiry.
Muchelule ordered the police to trace the sixth suspect, a former senior executive in Kenya’s largest bank.
The judicial inquiry, which presented its report to Kibaki on February 3, recommended that Wako consider prosecuting 14 people and the government investigate further the role of Moi and three other former high-ranking officials.
It concluded that the treasury lost at least 27-billion shillings in the scam that involved purported exports of gold and diamond jewelry and several complex financial deals. — Sapa-AP