Haki Afrika operates illegally, says regulator

Non-Governmental Organizations Co-ordination Board Executive Director/CEO Fazul Mahamed Yusuf (centre) addressing the press on the homosexuality ruling on union at Flamingo Beach Resort in Mombasa County on Friday 8th May 2015. The NGO said they are going to the supreme court for the interpretation of the law since they believe there is no any right on sexual orientation. He is flanked by the Bond's Legal Manager Lindon Nicholas Otieno (right) and the Programs and Partnership manager Joyce Naisiala (left) [Photo/Kelvin Karani/STANDARD]

Officials of one of the organisations blacklisted by the Government following the April 2 Garissa University College attack, could be jailed for operating the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) illegally.

NGO Co-ordination Board Executive Director Fazul Mahamed said yesterday that Mombasa-based Haki Afrika Foundation was not registered to offer charity services.

Mahamed said other organisations whose services were stopped by the Government will have to wait a little longer for investigations to be completed. He, however, said investigations for Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri) were almost complete.

Speaking to journalists in Nairobi yesterday, Mahamed also accused some unnamed organisations of preparing two different books of accounts; one for the donors and the other for the Government so as to evade scrutiny.

"We have seen cases where an NGO files returns, saying they had about Sh250,000 in their accounts while in real sense their account balance is more than Sh3 million.

He added: "Muhuri is registered but our only problem with them is compliance issues," he said.

The blacklisting of the two following April 2 terrorist attack in Garissa, it seems, is linked to the slow surrender of militants who had joined Al-Shabaab, since the two groups which spearheaded surrenders in the past now stand accused by the State of financing terrorism.

Mahamed said the board has summoned Haki Afrika's directors for a meeting in Nairobi today (Wednesday) to explain why they were operating illegally.

He said: "Haki Afrika is not a registered entity to offer any charity work in Kenya. They (Haki directors) risk being jailed for operating an illegal charity organisation and we have summoned them to our offices but what is clear is that they should cease operations until when they will be fully registered. The law requires all organisations offering charity work to be registered."

Haki Afrika was among 510 agencies axed for failing to file their annual audited accounts as required by law. Another 15 were suspected of having links with terrorism and money laundering and had their accounts frozen.

The Government recently wrote a letter to the Norwegian government, Haki Afrika main donor, asking it to stop funding the organisation.

"Haki Africa has been operating illegally in the country in direct contravention of NGOs Act," said the letter.

But two weeks ago, Norway's ambassador to Kenya Victor Rønneberg said his government will continue supporting Haki Afrika despite Kenya's protest.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry also wrote protest letters to the US and UK asking them to stop funding the organisation, whose activities, it said, "constitutes a serious threat to national security and jeopardises Government's efforts in tackling the vice of terrorism".