Kenya struggles with corruption
2005-02-09 14:38
Nairobi - An inquiry into Kenya's biggest-ever financial scandal resumed on Wednesday amid a storm of controversy over alleged government graft and the suspension of millions of dollars in United States aid.
As key foreign donors slammed Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's administration for failing to follow through on pledges to fight corruption, the probe into the so-called "Goldenberg Affair" resumed after a more than two-month hiatus.
The inquiry re-opened just a day after the United States suspended funds earmarked for Kenyan anti-corruption activities and two days after the resignation of Kibaki's top advisor on fighting graft.
Lawyers demanded that culprits in the Goldenberg case be sued and that the state move to recover anywhere from hundreds of millions to around three billion dollars believed to have been stolen from Kenya's central bank.
Transactions between Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and Goldenberg International "were illegal and unlawful and money should not have been paid to Goldenberg," the bank's lawyer, Agnes Murgor, told the panel.
Recovering the money
"The perpetrators of this crime should be brought to book," she said.
Goldenberg International is alleged to have defrauded the state and taxpayers in the early 1990s through a bonus system created by the government to encourage exports.
"The money should be recovered," said Cecil Miller, representing the state-run Deposit Protection Fund.
The inquiry re-opened after a January 31 Court of Appeal ruling quashed a lower court order requiring the Goldenberg panel not to conclude its investigation until it questioned retired president Daniel arap Moi and around 1 500 other witnesses who had refused to testify in person.
The panel had halted its work in November when confronted with the lower court's ruling.
Goldenberg's owner, Kamlesh Pattni, the chief suspect in the scandal, has told the inquiry that Moi received 11 million Kenyan shillings ($139 000) from spurious exports of gold and diamonds in the early 1990s.
But Moi's lawyer, Mutula Kilonzo, has rejected claims the former president authorised cash payments to Goldenberg.
"No one can pretend that the president had authority under the (law) to support illegalities," Kilonzo said, arguing that the money had been disbursed as the result of "a consipiracy." - AFP
- SAPA