News

By Jibril Adan

The ghosts of the Artur brothers returned to haunt the Government, with a new report detailing the high connections the bogus brothers enjoyed. And the report — by two parliamentary committees and which was tabled in the House on Thursday— said President Kibaki must have known about the infamous raid on the Standard Group that drew strong local and international condemnation. The media house publishes The Standard newspaper and owns premier television station KTN.

The committees — the Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, and Administration, National Security and Local Authorities — derived this conclusion from evidence presented by top Government officials, among them a Cabinet minister. The report said the raid was to stop the media house from publishing an alleged report that would have impinged on the person of the President.

During the raid on March 1, last year, hooded thugs — who were later to be exposed as officers of the Kanga Squad, which has since been disbanded — broke into the group’s I&M Bank Tower offices in the dead of night, harassed staff, disabled broadcasting equipment and carted away computers and other equipment. They then proceeded to the company’s printing press, off Likoni Road in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, where they again harassed staff, cannibalised the printing press and made a bonfire of the day’s newspapers that were rolling off the press. The impounded equipment has to-date not been returned to the group.

Minister should resign

Internal Security minister Mr John Michuki and his Permanent Secretary Mr Cyrus Gituai told the Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs committee that the raid was carried out "to stop the group from publishing untrue articles that had been lined up for publication". The two said the articles would have tarnished the name of the President and State House.

They further told the committee, led by Kabete MP Mr Paul Muite, that, "the articles were going to contain allegations that some Government officials were involved in tribal clashes and in terrorist bombings". Michuki told the committee: "It was not a raid. It was a Government operation".

The report names the key people who planned the raid as Michuki, the President’s Adviser Mr Stanley Murage and former CID chief Mr Joseph Kamau. It recommended that Michuki and Murage be removed from public office and prosecuted for their role in the raid. The minister is famously remembered for retorting, when confronted by the media over the raid, that the Standard Group had

rattled a snake (read Government) and must be prepared to be bitten by it.

And this was after Information minister Mr Mutahi Kagwe had denied that the Government had anything to do with the crude attack, which was described as an affront on media freedom. The House report said the committee was concerned that the Artur brothers’ presence in the country might have been linked to a drugs racket, with the Interpol describing the two alleged brothers as "international crooks on the run".

Others linked to the Arturs and their activities in Kenya are the Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Public Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, political activist Ms Mary Wambui and her daughter Ms Winnie Wambui, businessmen Mr Kamlesh Pattni and Mr Raju Sanghani. The report said the ultimate question the investigation into the saga must answer was: How much did President Kibaki know?

Said the report: "The questions, which the investigation must ultimately answer are, to borrow the Watergate inquiry jargon, what did the head of Government know? When did he get to know it and what did he do?" The report said the Kiruki Commission might have been established as a cover-up. "For what purpose was the Kiruki Commission formed and was it stage-managed to cover up?" it poses.

To unearth the truth, issues that have to be dealt with include knowing why the Kiruki report was never made public "for what it is worth", the report said. It added that the Government sabotaged its efforts to unearth how the alleged Armenian brothers were able to commit illegalities and even obtain the titles of Assistant Commissioners of Police. "The Artur brothers clearly demonstrated that they had political connections. A case in point was they instigated and orchestrated the raid on the Standard Group," said the report.

Police reused to obey summons

One of the images of people who staged the raid — captured on closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the Standard Group’s I&M Bank Tower offices — showed stunning resemblance to one of the alleged Armenians, Artur Margaryan. The report concluded that Kibaki must have known about the raid since it was claimed that it was to protect his person from a damning report that was allegedly to be published by The Standard.

"Furthermore, and following the admissions that the alleged publication was going to impinge upon the person of the President, it therefore follows that the President himself knew or been advised of the intended activities of the Artur brothers since the same were to protect him and his family including his Presidency," the report said. The report said that all the public officers involved — including Michuki, Kamau, all the police officers and the two foreigners — should be held accountable for the raid.

And the report said the fact that the two foreigners were spirited out of the country left a lot to be desired. "The raid was a direct and blatant move to hinder the freedom of the Press as enshrined in the Constitution, and the extra-judicial manner in which it was undertaken with the assistance of foreign mercenaries who had been defended by Government as investors is obnoxious and objectionable," said the report.

It recommended that the Government should punish all those who dealt with and condoned the Arturs’ illegal activities. "The Government must be seen to punish this kind of conduct in light of the fact that the Government’s campaign slogan in the last General Election was reform in the public sector," said the report. The House report said that all the illegal actions of the two bogus brothers were made possible by the political connections.

It said evidence should be taken from Muthaura on what he did, even after being advised by the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) about the two brothers. The two committees said they would continue with their investigation to unearth all those who were in touch with the two brothers, the purpose and why State privilege was extended to "international crooks". The report accused the Government of frustrating the committees’ work to get to the bottom of the matter. "The committee’s work was frustrated by those bent on protecting the Artur brothers and promoting the cover-up," says the report.

It said the first attempt was by Justice minister Ms Martha Karua, who attempted to stop the investigation on the "spurious ground that the issues the committee sought to investigate were the subject of the Kiruki commission". The second challenge was also by Karua, who again blocked the committees Motion to hear the evidence in public. The other obstructions were refusal by police officers to obey summons.