"Corruption will now cease to be a way of life in Kenya and I call upon all those members of my government and public officers accustomed to corrupt practice to know and clearly understand that there will be no sacred cows under my government." Mwai Kibaki 30 Dec 2002.
In February 2003, hardly a month after being sworn in, Kenya ’s President Mwai Kibaki appointed a
Commission of Inquiry into one of the largest financial scandals in Kenya ’s history. The fiddle,
popularly known in Kenya and even in international financial and donor circles simply as ‘Goldenberg’, is estimated to have cost Kenya some US $600 million in just less than three years.
This estimate is considered in some circles to be conservative; there are computations which indicate
that as much as US $1 billion could have directly and indirectly been siphoned through Goldenberg
networks.
The report of the Bosire Commission on the origins, acceptance and implementation by the Government of the contentious export compensation scheme in respect of exports of gold and diamond jewellery. The report implicated senior government officials.
A Government press statement within which it states that it will move expeditiously to fast-track all cases of perceived corruption including pending audit queries by the Public Accounts and Public Investment Committees, all the culpable actions reported in the report of the Ndung’u Commission, release and action on the report of the Goldenberg Commission, Anglo Leasing; and that any other cases of perceived corruption will be dealt with expeditiously.
Pattni v Ali - UK Privy Council 20th November 2006
A dispute over the ownership of Duty Free shops at Kenya's international airports. Features allegations of high level corruption in Kenya. Funding for Kamlesh Pattni by the Read More
Saitoti Judgment
Ruling of the High Court prohibiting the Kenyan Attorney General from prosecuting former Vice President (now Minister of Education) George Saitoti on the basis of the Bosire Goldenberg report for corruption. Read More
World Duty Free Ltd v Republic of Kenya (ICSID 4th October 2006)
"This constitutes the first ever arbitral award, to our knowledge that contains a finding of a payment of a cash bribe to a head of state." Constantine Partasides, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer 23 Oct. 2006. Read More
Originally published in Sunday Nation, August 6, 2006
It is said among lawyers and jurists that it is better for 10 guilty men to walk free than one innocent man to go to jail. It is considered sacrilege to the spirit of justice for the law to cause any harm to one who abode to it.
It […] Read Full Post »
