Facts about dubious Anglo Leasing contracts can’t be swept away

By Anyang’ Nyong’o

When the Anglo Leasing scandal broke out in 2004 during the NARC government, I was the Minister for Planning and National Development. John Githongo was then Permanent Secretary in charge of Ethics in government. We both belonged to the Cabinet Committee on Pending Bills. John was our secretary.

Our responsibility was to examine all pending bills that the government had inherited from previous administrations, examine their efficacy and decide on which ones were fake, genuine or outwardly criminal. As a whole we saved the government a substantial sum of money, discovered quite a number of ghost projects and managed to revive genuine stalled projects, particularly in universities.

But a series of shady contracts started staring us in the face: these were the Anglo Leasing contracts started during the last five years of the previous regime. John is a good researcher and investigative journalist. He delved further into them and found out, to his surprise, that some of them were still being kept alive by some ministries in our own government. Further discussions with both the President and the ministers convinced John that the whistle needed to be blown for Kenyans to be aware that a major corruption scandal was eating at the economic soul of the nation.

A good number of us who were later to be kicked out of the Cabinet in November 2005 supported John. The reader can confirm this just by going back to the media reports of those days.

I write this brief history because I have read some really unfortunate commentaries in the electronic and social media which argue that since Anyang’ Nyong’o was in government when Anglo Leasing occurred he should not criticise Jubilee for paying the Anglo Leasing debt. Not only is this a very juvenile argument; it betrays gross ignorance of history as well as facts. David Mwiraria, then Minister for Finance, would not have gone to Parliament to say the Anglo Leasing contracts had been cancelled if it were not for the actions and resistance of some of us in Cabinet who opposed the payments to these fictitious companies. Why is there nobody in the Jubilee government with enough courage and moral conviction to follow the example of NARC’s Pending Bills committee and John Githongo?

I will tell you why.

First is the Attorney General. When the chief legal officer in the government decides not to pursue a case filed in any court with the vigour it deserves the government will lose. I saw this when I was the chairman of the Public Investments Committee in the mid-90s.

An American firm called Arkel International had actually defrauded Nzoia Sugar Company over the Phase II modernisation project of Nzoia. Unusable tractors and other equipment had been purchased for Nzoia at highly inflated prices.

Our committee disputed the transaction and called on the government not to honour the deal.

The case ended up in the International Court of Settlements — or something to that effect — but the GoK lost the case. We had to pay that firm $5 million and actually forgo the Phase II modernisation project. The former Chief Officer of Nzoia actually became a witness in favour of Arkel during the case. I don’t think our AG did his best to defend Kenya’s interests either.

The same is true of these Anglo Leasing cases. With what vigour has Githu Muigai defended Kenya’s interests? What is this scare that our properties will be auctioned? Why can’t we as a government raise hell so the international community rallies to our aid in fighting the networks and cartels of corruption locally and internationally, in local courts and international courts? Are all these things called “ stays of execution” no longer available anywhere? Why can’t the Attorney General spare some extra energy from his ICC forays at least to serve the 40 million Kenyans rather than the 40 billionaires he is so faithful to in the Anglo Leasing deal?

Second is the Cabinet. I think we made a terrible mistake to think that a cabinet made up of non elected persons, persons completely disconnected from the political processes, is our salvation. It is actually our Waterloo when it comes to the fight against corruption and political tyranny.

Those men and women sitting in the Jubilee Cabinet are absolutely impotent when faced by the President and his Deputy on important issues. They owe their positions entirely to the two politicians. They dare not open their mouths if they think that they may be regarded as sympathetic to the opposition, which means to the people of Kenya on this Anglo Leasing issue. They are in fact much more beholden to their boss than any of the previous Cabinets during the darkest years of the former regimes. So, how can they professionally advise the President like our Pending Bills Committee did in the NARC regime?

Third is the National Assembly. I am not surprised. Ever since Mutava Musyimi took off the collar and entered Bunge he has surprised me how fast he has forgotten what Prophet Amos, the shepherd of Takoa, said many years ago. How can he possibly sell the need for a pair of sandals in his budget committee? Has his committee read reports from PriceWaterhouseCoopers on the Anglo Leasing contracts? Has he bothered to call David Mwiraria to find out why he cancelled payments to the contracts?

Has he tried to go beyond the presentations before him by Rotich and Muturi and ask for the court proceedings where we are supposed to have lost the case? Why are Mutava and his ilk dealing merely with appearances and not looking for the reality behind these appearances?

Don’t they remember the famous dictum from Karl Marx: “if appearances coincided with reality science would be superfluous”?

The superfluity of the Budget as well as the Finance And Trade Committees of Parliament are going to be clear if they become complicit in this manoeuvre to defraud Kenyans through lies, blackmail and legal somersaults by the inner circle. They will be held individually responsible for mortgaging generations of Kenyans to debts we never deserved and we never asked for.