David Mwiraria, the former Minister for Finance takes to his grave many secrets; the topmost being who the faceless recipients of the Anglo Leasing billions were.
He also goes with the secret of why the Kibaki administration ‘succumbed’ to what former anti-graft Tsar John Githongo would say; "taking home a skunk" as a gift and therefore having to live with its "disturbing fragrance".
He said this in reference to the fact that these were twin projects the National Rainbow Coalition found gathering dust on the shelves. Narc then decided to turn them into a gold mine, motivated by what Githongo, the unwanted insider in Kibaki’s State House; ‘our turn to eat’ and that ‘Anglo Leasing is about us."
Mwiraria, as Finance minister, held the key to who the faceless architects were. To date, we only know the Sri Lankan businessman President Uhuru Kenyatta agreed to pay billions in 2014 for non-existent services on the basis of a technicality that would have seen Kenya blacklisted in the global market as Jubilee sough the controversial Sh200 billion Eurobond.
Other scandals
Anglo Leasing almost consumed members of Kibaki’s kitchen cabinet. There was the haughty, arrogant and sweaty Chris Murungaru at Harambee House, who went down asking whose goat he had eaten to deserve so much hate from Kenyans. He was Kibaki’s sjambok (hippo or rhino hide whip) bearer lashing at the naked backs of Narc critics.
Also scalded by the flames of Anglo Leasing, the wounds of which were later scarred afresh by the Triton oil scandal, was former Justice and later Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi. With a sneering twist of the mouth, the current Meru senator fighting to be Governor would later call Anglo Leasing ‘the scandal that never was’.
Also haunted out by the scandal was Kibaki’s trusted aide and Mr Fix It, Alfred Getonga, who seems to have gone under the radar even in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime. Mwiraria, who unlike the late John Michuki and the late Njenga Karume, was with Kibaki in Makerere University. He also went down but bounced back before quietly easing himself out of politics. At the time the scandal’s ugly face burst to the surface of Kenya’s turbulent political sea, Mwiraria’s first wife was fighting for her life at Nairobi Hospital.
He would later claim that he used to be brought urgent office documents needing his signature at the hospital and that he unknowingly signed the Anglo Leasing contract payments because a trusted aide told him all the papers were okay.
He would for the rest of the period outside Cabinet be answering questions from detectives and prosecutors. Mwiraria was Kibaki’s pal and as we have seen, Anglo Leasing was about ‘them’.
Therefore, if you believe President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga often run short of soap in the bathroom, then you can swallow this one as well.
At one point, the court moved to Mwiraria’s bedside Karen Hospital because he missed many court sessions. That was the hospital where the old man died yesterday. In retirement, Mwiraria faded into oblivion.
I saw him one day at the Oil Libya fuel station opposite Galleria Mall, Nairobi. He was buying two packets of baby pampers. I would later learn he had somehow reinvented himself after losing the first wife and was again a jolly father. But as it were to his last moments, he was a private man and so were his secrets. Also mourning him will be his friend Kibaki.
I am not sure, but I recall hearing something like Mwiraria was Kibaki’s student at Makerere. But what is incontestable is that they were tight friends. Mwiraria sadly succumbed, like two of other Kibaki long-time friends – Karume and Michuki – to the gale of cancer that has taken grip of Kenya.
As a generation goes so does the truth of what transpired gets buried. However, true to the Kenyan spirit, we are not incapable of generating more, remember what transpired at NYS and by extension the Ministry of Devolution leading to the sacking of Anne Waiguru? Kenya is indeed the land of plenty.
Mr Tanui is the Deputy Editorial Director and Managing Editor, The Standard ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke
