Kenyans to wait much longer for Sh200m loot in Swiss banks
Kenyans will have to wait much longer before receiving over $2
million (about Sh200 million), suspected to be proceeds of corruption
that have been frozen in Swiss bank accounts as part of efforts to
recover and repatriate looted funds.
The money is linked to the multibillion Anglo Leasing scam — one of the biggest frauds in the history of corruption in Kenya.
Swiss
authorities now say the funds will only be wired to Kenya subject to
completion of judicial proceedings on Anglo Leasing cases and a ruling
on recovery of the money.
“(The) assets seized in
Switzerland may be returned to Kenya based on a final and executable
confiscation decision from the Kenyan Judiciary,” Ms Saskia Salzmann, a
diplomatic attaché’ at the Embassy of Switzerland to Kenya, Burundi,
Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, told the Sunday Nation.
“For
the money to be returned, the court proceedings first have to end in
Kenya. Currently, court proceedings in the Anglo Leasing case are still
ongoing and a final verdict has not been reached,” she added in an
interview.
Framework
Ms Salzmann said officials in Switzerland will discuss with
Kenyan authorities a repatriation framework once a ruling to the effect
that the monies are recovered is made.
An agreement
signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta with Swiss authorities states that
assets recovered will be used to support development objectives in areas
such as health.
Ms Salzman said once the conditions
are met, a discussion will take place under the Framework for the Return
of Assets from Corruption and Crime to Kenya as to how best to return
the money so that it benefits the population.
Businessmen
Deepak Kamani, Rashmi Kamani, Chamanlal Kamani and former permanent
secretaries Joseph Magari (Finance), Dave Mwangi (Provincial
Administration), and David Onyonka (former head of debt management at
the Treasury) are among those who have been charged with corruption over
the multibillion shilling Anglo Leasing contract signed in 2003 that
the government later cancelled.
Sh60 billion
Kenya
is suspected to have lost more than $600 million (more than Sh60
billion) in the Anglo Leasing scam. The money was lost in 18
security-related contracts awarded to companies that did not render
services or deliver goods paid for.
Some of the firms
were later found to have supplied substandard equipment at highly
inflated prices. Swiss authorities said in July last year that
recovering the money was part of a revamped and wider offshore scrutiny
of proceeds of sleaze and assets that corrupt Kenyans have hidden in the
European country's banks.
Top officials in former President Mwai Kibaki’s government were adversely mentioned in the Anglo Leasing scandal.
The
list included former vice-president Moody Awori, former Internal
Security minister Chris Murungaru and former Finance minister David
Mwiraria.
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