CORRESPONDENT | NATION Besides the ship, Jasiri, which docked in Mombasa
in December 2012, it has not been possible to deliver the other
equipment due to excessive political noise and negative publicity around
the Anglo-Leasing contracts.
Nation Media Group
Oxygen is always in short supply in Kenya, what with the spiralling population and rising pollution.
When
investors come to Kenya against their better judgment in an attempt to
increase the quality of air by doing business with the government, they
don’t expect to be frustrated.
Were Jubilee and Cord
MPs as well as the legal fraternity and civil society aware of this,
they would not give the Treasury a hard time over payment of billions
for the supply of air.
More than 10 years ago,
Anglo-Leasing and Finance Company arranged for Kenya to obtain loans to
buy numerous pieces of security equipment including a ship, very small
aperture terminal (VSAT) to connect all post offices, a radio
communication system for the post office and the Administration Police, a
forensic laboratory, a passport issuance system among others.
Not
a single shilling was received by Kenya in loans, and, according to
the Controller and Auditor General, “[i]n practically all the
supply/credit agreements, the government was in effect funding the
financiers/suppliers to finance the procurement of goods and services
due under the contracts while also paying interest and other financing
costs to the same financiers/ suppliers”.
Besides the
ship, Jasiri, which docked in Mombasa in December 2012, it has not been
possible to deliver the other equipment due to excessive political noise
and negative publicity around the Anglo-Leasing contracts.
Creating the impression of giving the government a loan is not easy and it must be paid for at a premium, quietly and quickly.
"OWNERS REMAIN UNKNOWN"
This
is not unusual. Next year, the government will close the account for
the loan to set up a fertiliser factory in Changamwe, after paying Sh5.1
billion to Ken-Ren Fertiliser Company, for a Sh50 million factory 30
years ago. The factory is in the imagination, but the money continues to
be paid without anyone raising a stink about the faces behind it.
Similarly,
when the government was setting up the mobile telephone giant,
Safaricom, in 2001, it needed the technical advice of Mobitelea Ventures
and agreed to give the company 10 per cent of shareholding in
Safaricom. Its owners remain unknown, but only two years after Safaricom
was listed on the NSE, Mobitelea sold its shareholding for Sh6 billion,
having ventilated the market with clean air, and quietly departed
without anyone attempting to unmask its owners.
In
2007, when the government was desperate to sell Telkom Kenya, it again
obtained expert market advice from Alcazar Capital of Dubai to ensnare
France Telecom to buy into the company. Alcazar was rewarded with 11 per
cent shareholding, and should make a clean shilling for supplying air
in a stuffy market when Telkom is sold off. No one has demanded to know
the owners of Alcazar or what it provided to own 11 per cent of the
company.
The newest round of demands to reveal names,
firms and faces behind Anglo-Leasing-type contracts after they obtained
court orders in Geneva and London for payment for supply of air can
discourage investors from venturing into Kenya. Investors like to be
guaranteed a certain level of anonymity when trading in an African
country.
In the present case, Kenya should be
embarrassed that for all its billing as a scandal, money was never lost
in any of the Anglo-Leasing deals.
It cannot be right
that Anglo-Leasing be maligned for so long without paying out any money.
That is why Kenya’s lawyers refused to defend the claim for money in
the London and Geneva courts.
kwamchetsi@formandcontent.co.ke
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