from Judy Miriga

Folks,

This sounds like a very good progress move. It will be a success story only when additional push and shoves from the wider community of Civil Society get engaged. Its success will remain our progressive adventure to better future destiny……

Positiveness, Committment and Good endeavours pays……..

Have an Engagement Day………

Cheers everybody…….

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

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Kenya: Swiss Freeze Anglo-Leasing Money
By Andrew Teyie, 1 March 2012

THE Swiss government has frozen three bank accounts associated with Anglo Leasing suspect Deepak Kamani and opened money laundering charges against him and two Britons.

“The Swiss government has delivered on the requests regarding the money trail of Anglo Leasing suspects as requested by the Kenya government. The Swiss authorities believe that it was a case of money laundering. They also believe that the suspects infringed on the laws of Switzerland. The accounts that have been frozen belong to three individuals. The individuals are among those who set up the financial structure,” said Swiss ambassador Jacques Pitteloud in Nairobi yesterday. The two Britons were not named.

An unconfirmed report says that Kamani-associated companies may have had US$160 million (Sh13.6 billion) in accounts in Geneva with HSBC, Schroders, UBS and Pictet. In 2009 US national Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months for helping clients hide their money in a multibillion dollar international tax fraud over Swiss private banking. Bradley was intimately connected with the Kamani brothers – Deepak and Rashmi – who controlled 13 of the Anglo Leasing companies whose accounts Bradley managed when he worked for UBS.

Bradley’s private residential address was listed as the office of Midlands Finance and Securities Ltd which received 36 irrevocable and negotiable promissory notes worth euros 49.6 million for a sham loan that Kenya never received as part of the Anglo Leasing scam. Bradley also signed one of the 18 Anglo Leasing contracts on behalf of Info Talent to computerise the police force at a cost of $59.7 million (Sh5.1 billion). Two years ago, the Swiss government complained that a “conflict of competence” had arisen when then Attorney General Amos Wako invalidated a request for assistance made by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate those responsible. The KACC was also expected to recover assets acquired through Anglo Leasing.

The Swiss government was unable to act on the KACC request until now when new Attorney General Githu Muigai renewed the request for assistance last month. Yesterday, Pitteloud, flanked by his deputy Siri Walt, declared that the days when Switzerland was used as a money laundering haven were over. He said that Switzerland has co-operated with Kenya and will continue to do so. He said it was now up to the Kenya government to prosecute those involved. “The office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has completed the execution of eight requests for assistance in connection with the Anglo Leasing affair,” said Pitteloud.

He said his government would itself soon be making similar requests for assistance to the Kenya government. “The findings made so far from the comprehensive analyses have made further investigations essential. In the coming months, the Swiss Attorney General will be making his own request for assistance to various states with the aim of establishing whether money laundering has been committed or not,” said Pitteloud.

Last year, Treasury directed AG Amos Wako and then Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission director PLO Lumumba to recover Sh3.83 billion from Anglo Leasing suspect Deepak Kamani. Wako was also asked to trace and recover assets acquired through Anglo Leasing. The directive followed a Cabinet meeting that terminated four contracts awarded to companies associated with the Kamanis. The contracts were for security vehicles to be supplied by Leyland Exports/Silverspoon Establishment; the construction of a forensic laboratory by Forensic Laboratories Ltd; tamper-proof passports for the Immigration Department by Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd; and the E-cop police computerisation project financed by Infotalent.

Kenya: Hague Appeals Chamber Rejects Victims’ Application
By Nzau Musau, 28 February 2012

THE ICC appeals chamber has rejected an application by the victims section of the court to make observations on the appeals filed by the four Kenyan suspects challenging jurisdiction.

All but one of the five judges rejected the application made by Office of Public Counsel for Victims Paolina Massidda. She had wanted to make submissions distinct from the ones to be made by the legal representatives for victims. Lawyer Sureta Chana is acting on behalf of the victims in the first Kenyan case involving Eldoret North MP William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang. Morris Anyah is acting for the victims of the second case of deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and former head of public service Francis Muthaura.

In dismissing the application, the judges said the chamber already has a scheme on how victims may participate in appeals on jurisdiction and which does not support Massida’s application. “Under this scheme, only those victims who have made observations on the question of jurisdiction or admissibility in the proceedings before the Pre-Trial or Trial Chamber are invited to make observations before the Appeals Chamber,” the judges said.

The four, Akua Kuenyehia (Presiding Judge), Erkki Kourula, Anita Usacka, Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko, said the scheme also includes those victims whose status is yet to be confirmed but only if they have participated in the matter before. They said they did not invite the victims office to make observations on the appeals because because they had not submitted any observations on the jurisdictional challenge before the Pre-Trial Chamber.

“Furthermore, in the present appeals, the Appeals Chamber does not see any reason to permit the OPCV to make observations on an exceptional basis,” they said. Judge Sang-Hyun Song dissented from the opinion of the majority but nevertheless rejected the application. The judge dissent was based on a separate legal reasoning opposed to that one of the majority. All the accused in the two cases had pleaded with the chamber not to entertain the request arguing that victims interests were fully represented by their two lawyers- Anyah and Chana.

Islanders protest against Kenya mega port plan

Fisherman are pictured at a harbour in Kenya’s resort-island of Lamu. Residents of …

Residents of Kenya’s coastal island of Lamu protested Thursday against a planned huge port to be constructed near the UNESCO-listed isle, accusing the government of ignoring their concerns.

Around 200 placard-bearing protesters gathered at Lamu’s town square before marching on the narrow sea front walk-way shouting “our land, our rights.”

The residents of Lamu, an ancient Swahili coastal town in Kenya’s southeast, say the government has failed to do a study on the mega port’s impact, involve the community in the project and is yet to issue them land ownership titles.

“The government has the responsibility to protect Kenyans first before others,” said Hussein Khalid, of Muslim Human Rights community group. “We are not asking for a favour, we are demanding our rights.”

Besides a 32-berth port, the project also comprises thousands of kilometres-long rail road and highway to Ethiopia and South Sudan, which has inked a deal with Nairobi to build a pipeline to export its crude through Lamu.

Kenya hopes the $24.5 billion project will uplift its economic development in the next two decades.

“The demands for the rights of Lamu people has fallen on deaf ears,” said a statement by Save Lamu, a coalition of local community groups in Lamu.

“We are greatly concerned that the lack of transparency, secrecy and poor accountability in the way the project is being implemented is a dismal reflection of our rights as governed by the constitution,” it added.

There are also fears the mega port will impact Lamu town — whose ancient Swahili architecture is a UN-listed World Heritage site popular with celebrities — although the port will be some 10 kilometres (six miles) away.

Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki will host South Sudan President Salva Kiir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Friday to inaugurate the project.

To placate angry residents, the Kenyan government has begun issuing land title deeds to locals, who despite calling Lamu their home for years, have never had official land ownership.