US embassy cable - 05NAIROBI5103

C O N F I D E N T I A L NAIROBI 005103 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
STATE FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, EB/IFD 
TREASURY FOR ANNE ALIKONIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: (###) 
TAGS: ECON, PGOV, KCOR, KPAO, PINR, KE 
SUBJECT:  CORRUPTION IN KENYA - JOHN GITHONGO PREPARES TO TELL 
ALL 
 
Ref: 11/28/2005 Hoover/Yamamoto and subsequent e-mails 
 
Classified By:  ECON COUNSELOR JOHN HOOVER.  REASON 1.4(B) and 
(D). 
 
1.  (C) Summary:  Former Kenyan "anti-corruption czar" John 
Githongo has organized all of the evidence of wrongdoing in 
his possession and put it into a single seamless narrative 
detailing the grand scale corruption committed by several of 
the highest-ranking and most influential ministers and 
advisors in the Kenyan administration of Mwai Kibaki between 
2002 and 2004.  All but one of the ministers exposed in 
Githongo's soon-to-be-published report was reappointed by 
Kibaki in his recent December 7 cabinet reshuffle.  Githongo 
intends to go public with his report in the coming days or 
weeks - an event which will surely increase the pressure on 
the embattled Kenyan president.  However, it is doubtful the 
report, no matter how compelling or how well supported with 
material evidence, will lead to a sea change in the Kibaki 
administration's willingness to take on entrenched corruption 
within its upper ranks.  End summary. 
 
2.  (C) Econ/C met December 10 with Mugo Githongo, brother of 
John Githongo, former Kenyan Permanent Secretary for 
Governance and Ethics.  (Background note: John Githongo, 
dubbed until then Kenya's "anti-corruption czar," resigned and 
took up self-imposed exile in the UK in February.  He is 
currently in the United States on an International Visitor 
program.  End note).  The purpose of the meeting was to allow 
Econ/C to review (but not retain) a letter dated November 26 
written by John Githongo to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, and 
to also examine an attached 19-page dossier containing 
information about "the most egregious" cases of high-level 
corruption within the Kibaki administration, as investigated 
by Githongo during his tenure in office.  Mugo Githongo told 
Econ/C that the dossier is a summary version of a 91-page 
report completed by his brother in September based on all the 
evidence on corruption in the Government of Kenya (GOK) 
amassed during his time in office. 
 
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Githongo Letter to Kibaki: Reaching Out One Last Time 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
3.  (C) As noted in referenced e-mails, Githongo's November 26 
cover letter to Kibaki was written during the period after 
Kibaki dismissed his cabinet on November 23, which in turn 
followed his camp's resounding defeat in Kenya's 
constitutional referendum two days earlier.  The cover letter 
represents an attempt by Githongo to discreetly reach out to 
Kibaki, to remind him of "incontrovertible material evidence" 
of corruption in his possession (as detailed in the dossier), 
and to reiterate that this evidence links several of the 
"senior-most officials" in Kibaki's administration to major 
graft cases.  The letter is not a self-serving offer to return 
to government by Githongo.  In fact, he closes it by merely 
offering to hel in resolving the corruption cases he had 
investigated and "to contribute to processes to ensure they 
are not repeated in the future." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
Truth Better than Fiction: Chronology of Grand Scale Theft 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
4.  (C) The best reading, however, is in the 19-page summary 
dossier, or "Statement of Events", a day-by-day account 
beginning in early 2004 of Githongo's investigation of a 
series of related scams involving illegal, shadowy, defense 
and security-related procurement contracts, including not 
least the now-infamous Anglo-Leasing scandals, in which the 
government entered into two different contracts worth a 
collective $89 million to a non-existent finance company 
before any goods and services had ever been delivered. 
 
5.  (C) The dossier offers nothing strikingly new in the way 
of evidence or conclusions about the high-level, grand scale 
corruption that began to come to light beginning in the spring 
of 2004.  In fact, the information in the dossier is 
consistent with much of what Embassy Nairobi received and 
reported from Githongo and others at that time, and on up to 
the present day.  The value it adds is in stitching the many 
pieces together into a coherent narrative.  In so doing, it 
 
offers a damning indictment of an administration that sold its 
soul from the very outset by putting personal greed and power 
politics ahead of good governance. 
 
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A Who's Who of Corrupt Ministers and Advisors 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
6.  (C) The Statement of Events directly links several former 
and/or recently renamed ministers and advisors in Kibaki's 
inner circle with the Anglo-Leasing and a series of other 
similar security-related procurement scams.  Some are direct 
participants in the graft, others willing accomplices, and 
others merely complicit.  Among the highlights: 
 
-- Chris Murungaru, National Security Minister (until February 
2005) and Alfred Getonga, Office of the President:  The 
dossier is peppered with Murungaru's name.  On several 
occasions, Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi admits to Githongo 
with surprising openness that Murungaru and Getonga were the 
ones behind Anglo-Leasing (see below), but that Murungaru is 
too powerful politically to touch.  Murungaru throughout is 
shown to impede and block investigations, and to put pressure 
on Githongo and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to 
back off on their investigations because of the potential 
"political costs" involved. 
 
-- David Mwiraria, Finance Minister: The dossier starts out 
with Mwiraria quizzing Githongo about an investigation into 
shadowy bank transfers involving Anul Perera, a businessman 
widely believed to be the private sector brains behind many 
corrupt procurement scams both before and after the NARC came 
to power.  In the conversation, Mwiraria implores Githongo to 
go easy on Perera, whom Mwiraria insists is an honorable, 
upstanding businessman and friend of President Kibaki, having 
once paid the latter's UK hospital bills.  In June 2004, 
Githongo catches Mwiraria in a bald lie when the latter 
insists he had not budgeted for a KSh 222 million ($3 million) 
payment to Anglo-Leasing, even after it was clear the company 
was non-existent.  The same month, Mwiraria in Githongo's 
presence orders an aide to call Deepak Kamani, the private 
sector conspirator behind Anglo-Leasing, to tell him to repay 
the money he had received for the bogus contracts.  This 
startles Githongo, because Mwiraria had all along insisted he 
did not know who was behind Anglo-Leasing.  Once money does 
begin to be mysteriously returned to the Kenyan Central Bank 
due to Githongo's investigations, Mwiraria and others in the 
administration repeatedly pressure Githong to "go easy" on the 
investigations.  Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua, 
with whom Githongo develops a good relationship, tells 
Githongo in the second half of 2004 that he is under intense 
pressure by Mwiraria to authorize payments for a suspicious 
contract with a Spanish shipbuilder to build a frigate for the 
Kenyan Navy. 
 
-- Kiraitu Murungi, Justice Minister (reappointed Energy 
Minister November 7): Murungi is perhaps the story's most 
complex character, tortured by the knowledge of the graft 
around him, but also ultimately an integral part of it.  In a 
June 29 meeting with Githongo, an emotional Murungi admits 
that the Anglo-Leasing scandal "is us," i.e. Murungaru, 
Getonga, and others.  He appeals to Githongo's patriotism and 
political loyalty to Kibaki, insisting the stolen money is 
needed for "political fund raising".  In a similar subsequent 
discussion with Githongo, Murungi warns Githongo that exposure 
of senior NARC leaders in "another Goldenburg" will bring down 
the Kibaki administration.  In yet another conversation with 
Githongo in the fall of 2004, Murungi "lets his guard down" 
and directly links Murungaru and Getonga with Anul Perera in 
connection with the Navy frigate scam.  He openly tells 
Githongo that the contract needs to be paid to raise money for 
political campaigns, and that Githongo's investigation is 
thereby undermining the party's power. 
 
-- Few Are Untouched: Githongo's dossier also implicates Vice 
President Moody Awori, Simeon Nyachae (ex-Energy Minister, 
reappointed Roads Minister November 7), Head of Civil Service 
Francis Muthaura, and a panoply of lesser civil servants, only 
some of whom were dismissed in June 2004 and are in the slow 
process of being prosecuted.  In the private sector, in 
addition to masterminds Kamani and Perera, Amcit Charles 
Kettering is placed at the center of a series of procurement 
 
scams, including a deal to build a national communication 
backbone for the military.   KACC Director Aaron Ringera is 
not implicated in any wrongdoing, but comes off as weak-willed 
when he tells Githongo he is in the unenviable position of 
knowing too much.  He warns Githongo that "they" will kill 
Githongo if he tries to leave Kenya.  Ringera admits he 
himself won't touch any cases that "reach the President." 
 
---------------------------- 
Kibaki Is At Least Complicit 
---------------------------- 
7.  (C) But what of President Kibaki himself?  The dossier is 
not definitive in this regard, but throughout the chronology, 
Githongo is regularly briefing Kibaki on his findings. 
Kibaki's lack of action in response to the evidence would 
appear to indicate he either actively participated in the 
corruption, or else felt the graft was a necessary political 
expedient to raise cash for political campaigns.  Kibaki's 
true position emerges indirectly in the narrative when 
Githongo realizes that Murungi's surprising candor about 
Murungaru's involvement in the frigate scam, given in the 
knowledge that Githongo had direct access to Kibaki, means 
that the latter is at least complicit and that Githongo's 
position is thus "untenable."   Mugo Githongo later told 
Econ/C that his brother remains "quite fond" of Kibaki, and 
that the longer 91-page report paints Kibaki more as a 
befuddled victim than an active conspirator. 
 
------------------------- 
Corruption by the Numbers 
------------------------- 
 
8.  (C) The scale of grand scale corruption in the NARC 
administration as reported by Githongo would have a direct, 
negative macro-economic impact on a struggling economy of 
around $20 billion in size in 2005.  In the course of his 
chronology, Githongo concludes in July 2004 that the NARC 
administration had itself initiated $277 million worth of 
bogus security-related contracts, and was also participating 
in another $443 million of similar contracts signed by the 
previous government in the period from 2001 until late in 
2002, after which NARC came to power.  Githongo later surmises 
that including an even more shadowy set of deals involving the 
Kenyan Department of Defense, the total of all such "Anglo- 
Leasing-type" deals added up to over $1 billion. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Next Steps: Githongo to Go Public with Evidence 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
9.  (C) According to Mugo Githongo, a copy of the letter and 
the summary dossier were conveyed to the KACC on December 13, 
and his brother intends to go public in the coming days by way 
of an op-ed he is now drafting which will be published in the 
international media.  How and when he will convey his longer, 
more detailed 91 page report to Kenyan authorities and/or the 
public remains to be seen, but Mugo Githongo said his brother 
hopes to return to Kenya in January, and will make himself 
available to the KACC and/or others to provide evidence and 
testimony in the cases he was investigating.  Mugo Githongo 
intends to provide a hard copy of the 19-page dossier to us in 
the coming days, at which time we will scan and e-mail to 
concerned Washington offices.  Another sidelight: John 
Githongo passed a copy of his November 26 letter to Kibaki to 
the Nation newspaper in Nairobi late in the week of December 
5.  As of December 13, the paper has sat on the letter and not 
run a story. 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
10.  (C) Once it is made public, the Githongo dossier is very 
likely to put further pressure on the now-reconstituted Kibaki 
administration, particularly since all of the ministerial- 
level officials named and shamed in the dossier, except for 
Chris Murungaru, have been invited back into Cabinet. 
However, given that Kibaki has known about the wrongdoing 
among his closest advisors for quite some time and done almost 
nothing about it, we are under no illusion that he will use 
the dossier, and the public outcry it will generate, to clean 
 
house and truly make fighting corruption a priority.  It is 
very clear from the dossier that Kibaki's inner circle never 
cared much about fighting corruption; indeed it quickly turned 
to the same patterns of grand scale theft used by the previous 
regime as a means to maintain its grip on power.  Githongo, it 
seems, was brought in as window dressing to fool the Kenyan 
public and donors.   It is lucky for Kenya, however, that 
before he left, Githongo was able to amass evidence that will 
soon expose the very lie perpetrated by the NARC power elite 
when it came to power. 
 
BELLAMY