The British Foreign Office launched an attack on Friday night on the Kenyan government over its handling of the corruption investigation into the Moi regime. It also emerged on Friday that many other members of the Kenyan establishment are suspected of corruption involving a total of more than $2-billion.
In a sharply worded response to the report on the Kroll inquiry into theft by the Moi regime, the Foreign Office — also speaking for the Treasury — said it was ”very surprised” to read the claim by Alfred Mutua, the Nairobi government’s spokesperson, that the British government had been asked for help — but ”so far they have refused”.
The Foreign Office said: ”That is incorrect. We stand ready to assist Kenya with any asset recovery, as we have done successfully with Nigeria. But the Kenyans have not requested assistance despite our offer. Nor have they provided the information we would need to comply with any such request. Last year, when Lord Goldsmith [then attorney general] was in Kenya with Kenya’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, Danson Mungatana, they confirmed publicly that we had offered this assistance.”
British officials in Kenya have also been in contact with the government of Mwai Kibaki to ”clarify” the accusation that Britain had refused to help. Britain has led donor countries in calling for the prosecution of corrupt politicians, and Edward Clay, the previous high commissioner in Nairobi, famously accused the government of ”vomiting on the shoes” of donor countries by failing to stem corruption.
Although the leaked report focuses on Daniel arap Moi’s sons and two close allies, it also mentions several sitting MPs, including at least one current Cabinet minister, as well as officials close to President Kibaki. Kroll is also understood to have investigated about 17 other people with ties to the former president, but these reports have yet to be made public.
It also emerged on Friday that in 2004, Kenyan anti-corruption officials were near to freezing an offshore account with $300-million of looted money in it but were thwarted when the cash was moved after a tip-off from within Kenya.
The document lists properties in Britain, including a luxury flat in Lowndes Square in Knightsbridge and houses in Surrey supposedly purchased by the Mois or their associates.
The Kenyan government has begun a damage limitation operation over the publication of the 110-page dossier on corruption compiled by the international risk consultant Kroll in 2004 but never published until the website Wikileaks released it this week.
”There is enough information now to blow not just the Mois but most of the Kenyan establishment out of the water,” Clay said on Friday night. ”The scale and type of the money-laundering is what we were given to understand existed during the time I was in Kenya.”
As to who leaked the document, Clay said: ”The motives for leaking this are probably complex but I suppose have something to do with reminding Mr Moi that his support for the president is quite important because here is the reminder that they have the dirt on him.”
At a glance
Modelled on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia in design and spirit, Wikileaks – the website which obtained the Kroll report — was established to facilitate ”untraceable mass document leaking and analysis”. According to the website, the primary interest is to expose oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, as well as unethical behaviour by Western corporations and governments. Whistleblowers post documents anonymously. Wikileaks’ founders, who include ”dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists” from the United States, China, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa, say that advanced cryptographic technology ensures that the whistleblower’s anonymity is protected. – Guardian Unlimited Â