United States to help Kenya fight graft, terror in new deal

US President Barack Obama

The United States will help Kenya in the fight against corruption, asset recovery and prevention of transfer of proceeds of crime.

A new deal between the two countries will also see Kenya gain expertise in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, once it joins the Egmont Group, the international Finance Intelligence Units (FIUs) group.

In the commitments made during President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya a week ago, the US will assist Kenya meet the requirements of Egmont Group FIUs, that regularly meets to promote the development of FIUs and to co-operate especially in the areas of information exchange, training and the sharing of expertise.

A document published by the White House enumerates four key areas that both governments will work on to improve governance by increasing transparency and accountability in government, and commit to work together to combat corruption in Kenya.

“The two governments plan to meet quarterly to review progress in implementing these commitments,” reads the document.

Extradition of suspects to either country will be made easy once an agreement is signed between the two countries.

The Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs pledged to meet to discuss best practices and to improve bilateral co-operation in criminal cases with a focus on mutual legal assistance and extradition.

According to the document, Kenya pledged to review and expand its mutual legal assistance framework and partnership with key strategic countries.

“This work would especially target enabling asset seizures and recovery, detection and investigations, and arrests and prosecutions,” says the document.

Kenya and US will continue working on individual criminal cases of mutual interest and to share available information on illicit finance and individuals and entities involved in money laundering and terror financing with appropriate Kenyan ministries and agencies.

drug trafficking

The steps can enhance the ability of both countries to investigate, apprehend and successfully prosecute persons suspected of corruption-related crimes, adds the document.

This means cases like that involving international drug trafficking, the Anglo Leasing and others will be easy to handle through extradition.

Kenya intends to join the Partnership on Illicit Finance (PIF) announced at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, and the commitments included in this pledge constitute elements of its action plan under the PIF.

“The two governments believe that civil society should play a significant role in the review mechanism for the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), as well as UNCAC’s mechanisms on asset recovery and prevention of transfers of proceeds of crime.

The two governments committed to transparency in decision-making and financial flows related to the extractive industries.

Kenya committed to implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) domestically and to identifying and enabling an EITI implementation focal point within the Government within six months.