Huge Kenyan govt scam revealed

2006-01-22 17:42

Oxford - Kenya's former anti-corruption ombudsman claims that past and present Kenyan cabinet ministers admitted to him they were behind a multimillion-dollar fraud, and that the president knew.

On Sunday, John Githongo released to journalists a dossier he said he submitted late last year to the president and to Kenyan anti-corruption agents detailing his investigation and conversations with the ministers and with President Mwai Kibaki about the fraud.

Githongo added that he concluded Kibaki "knew about it all along".

He said he resigned a year ago when his efforts during the previous year to expose the ministers were thwarted, and expressed regret about waiting so long to speak out.

Kenyan government spokesperson Alfred Mutua did not answer phone calls for comment on Sunday.

Kibaki rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment to power three years ago, but has faced a growing crisis regarding questions about the honesty of close aides.

Held fire, awaiting state action

The scam Githongo detailed in his dossier, involving government contracts awarded to a company that existed only on paper, had been widely reported in the Kenyan media.

But, Githongo's was the first credible account of ministers' involvement.

As a former journalist and one-time head of the Kenya chapter of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Githongo might have been expected to quickly tell the Kenyan people what he knew.

Instead, he waited for the government he served to take action - in 2003, Kibaki had made him head of a governance and ethics department formed to advise the president on fighting corruption in government.

In an interview, Githongo said he and other activists were too quick to embrace Kibaki, losing the independence necessary to be effective watchdogs.

"The proximity to power, it sucks you in. It changes you, not always for the better," he said.

Githongo's dossier, which covers the months before his until now unexplained departure from Kibaki's government and from Kenya, names three powerful figures as the engineers of the scam, its cover-up, or both.

Under no illusions

They are: Chris Murungaru, a former national security minister and transport minister; Kiriatu Murungi, former justice minister and present energy minister; and finance minister David Mwiraria.

Last year, Britain and the United States barred Murungaru from visiting, citing provisions against granting visas to those involved in corruption.

The United States Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland declared Githongo's departure damaged Kenya's anti-graft credentials, and Washington suspended about US$2.5m (about R15m) in funding for anti-corruption work in Kenya.

Githongo said: "I'm under no illusion that my coming forward is going to change anything overnight."

"Kenyans, in their own quiet way, will say, 'This simply confirms what we knew, what we've been hearing, and we're going to make these fellows pay'."

Has had death threats

The fraud involved awarding a contract worth about US$40 million (about R240m) and another of US$600m (about R3 600m.

Githongo said he was "complicit" for not coming forward sooner.

He has spent the past year at the University of Oxford, researching a book on corruption.

Githongo said he had received messages that politicians and businessmen involved in the scam threatened his life, but played that down as a reason for delaying coming forward.

- AP