Attorney General Githu Muigai. file photo | nmg
Kenya has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Swiss
government agency to boost recovery of looted wealth stashed overseas.
Switzerland is among the top havens in the world preferred for hiding illicit wealth due to its secretive banking practices.
Attorney-General
(AG) Githu Muigai said the MOU with the Swiss Federal Council will
facilitate mutual assistance between the two countries through the
provision of technical assistance that is aimed at confiscating
illegally acquired assets and repatriating them.
The AG also lauded the move as key in fighting corruption, especially where those who loot the assets hide them abroad.
“The
signing of the MOU between the Swiss Federal Council and the Republic
of Kenya on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters goes a long way
in reassuring Kenyans that the days of thieves are numbered. You can
run, but you no longer have a hiding place because all our partners are
supporting us in this fight,” Mr Muigai said at the ceremony attended by
Swiss Ambassador to Kenya Ralf Heckner.
Tax amnesty
Key
areas of cooperation in the MOU include assets recovery in various
parts of the world as well as the repatriation of criminals and their
proceeds. Kenya now plans to develop a treaty on extradition to
facilitate the transfer of the criminals to face justice as well as
recover what has been looted.
The Mutual Legal
Assistance Act 2011 came into effect on December 2, 2011 and provides
for legal assistance to be given and received by the Government of Kenya
from foreign countries and partners in relations to investigations,
prosecutions and judicial proceedings on criminal matters.
Kenya
is also racing to recover billions stashed in overseas account by its
citizens over the years. One of the latest is a tax amnesty window given
to tax cheats holding cash and property abroad.
Treasury
secretary Henry Rotich extended the pardon by six more months during
his April Budget speech, pushing the deadline to June 2018.
The
amnesty covers taxes, penalties or interest in respect of any year of
income ending on or before December 31, 2016 and allows those with
assets held abroad to repatriate them with no questions on their origins
or past records.
Once
those with wealth hidden abroad have declared them, they are issued
with a certificate to declare their tax evasion sins forgiven.
Stakeholders
have voiced concerns that the move meant put more high net worth
individuals into the tax system will be prone to abuse as many will use
it to launder their wealth—some thought to have been acquired illegally —
by returning it to Kenya.
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