Anglo Leasing mystery now deepens

By WILFRED AYAGA

Kenya: The controversy surrounding the proposed payment of over Sh1.4 billion to two companies has stirred the long, winding and dark narrative that is the 18 security-related dubious contracts known as Anglo Leasing.

At the centre of the current conflict is whether the Government should clear the money awarded to Mercantile Securities Ltd and Universal Satspace, the two companies that went to court to demand payment for services rendered to the Government between 2002 and 2004.

But the current debate is just a short scene in the lengthy Anglo Leasing narrative defined by conflicting numbers, mysterious personalities and political intrigue that has been the fodder for public interest for over a decade. 

Unmasking the shadowy figures behind the Sh57 billion contracts (official figures, but the cost runs to hundreds of billions by other accounts) has been a sticky issue.

On Wednesday, a meeting between Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Jubilee Members of Parliament collapsed after, according to the MPs, the Treasury bosses failed to name the figures behind the clamour for the latest Sh1.4 billion payout.

This week, the National Assembly, in yet another twist failed to debate a report of joint Budget and Finance committees that recommended that the Government clears the debt.

Rotich appeared before the joint committee armed with various correspondences hoping to convince members to approve the payments.

He eventually succeeded in having a recommendation for the payments put in the report, but failed to answer the lingering question on the real faces behind the contracts, further deepening the mystery.

By failing to name the people behind the two companies, Rotich followed in the script of his predecessor, David Mwiraria who once said that the Anglo Leasing money had been returned, but failed to name the faces that had wired it back.

Actual figures

During the two cases in London and Geneva, the court gave a stinging judgement against State, giving indication that the case may not have been strongly defended. 

“The republic did not discharge its burden of proving the allegations of corruption and dishonesty or that the contract was influenced by former Permanent Secretary Sammy Kyungu through payment of fees for his children by the claimant’s managing director,” read the judgement.

The real faces behind the contracts are as mysterious as the actual figures of the contracts.

No one seems to know the actual value of the money that the Government lost through the fictitious Anglo leasing companies, with various figures being bandied about since the scam came to light.

The figure of Sh125 billion has been the favourite of critics, and  when Rotich appeared before the committee, he was at pains to clarify that the figure that was to be paid back was much less than that.

“It is clear that the press statement that Government wants to pay Sh125 billion is not true and is misleading. We do not understand where this figure came from. The true position is that the amount awarded by the court was Sh1.6 billion and after negotiations, this figure was reduced to Sh1.4 billion,” the Government said in a full page newspaper advertisement.  The status of each of the 18 projects also remains a matter only clear to the mandarins that man the Treasury.

Recover billions

A letter written by then Permanent Secretary in Treasury, Joseph Kinyua to then Attorney General Amos Wako and former Director of Patrick Lumumba in 2011 gave a summary of the status of each of the 18 projects and claimed that the Government was in the process of recovering Sh3.83 billion that had been lost through overpayment.

According to the letter this was the value of money that had been lost through overpayments to five companies associated with fugitive businessman Deepak Kahamani.

The letter called for concerted efforts between the two offices to recover the money.

But efforts to nail Khamani and make him answer to the charges have taken a life of their own, with both the police and the courts seemingly unable to pin him down. Khamani remains a mystery figure in the Anglo Leasing odyssey.

At one point, the High court in Nairobi issued orders for his passport to be impounded, only for it to emerge later that he had already fled the country.

Court awards

 Among the controversial contracts awarded to Khamani was the supply of 994 security vehicles and spare parts to the Office of the President.

Three years since he wrote the letter to the AG and the Director of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Kinyua’s name popped up yet again in the letter given to the joint house committee, this time as part of a group that was mandated by the National Security Council to explore alternative ways of settling the Anglo Leasing matter.

According to the letter, Kinyua was mandated alongside the AG and the Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs and Defence to explore alternative avenues to settle the payment of the court awards.

And now, the two companies have the Government in a tight corner even as Treasury argues that accumulated interest from the two court awards could hit Sh20 billion.

Since court awards to the two companies were issued last December, interest has been accruing meaning that the figure the Government will be paying could be more than the 1.4 billion it is asking the House to approve.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that the former coalition government cleared two of the projects without seeking approval of the National Assembly, much like is happening now.