Updated Anglo Leasing files to be sent back to DPP Keriako Tobiko

Kenyans will this week know if the 10 people recommended for prosecution over Anglo Leasing will stand in the dock.

A joint technical team formed to evaluate Anglo Leasing files forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko’s office will submit its report on Thursday.

Sources said the team is in a retreat at a city hotel compiling their report ahead of the handover.

Tobiko confirmed he expects the report any time in the course of the week to know if the gaps he had identified had been filled.

“I am aware the team is in its final stages and should hand over the report any time this week for action. I hope the gaps that had been identified have been filled,” he said.

A source aware of the team’s operations said they had virtually bridged the gaps and hope the report will be accepted for prosecution.

“There are correspondences that were missing and we managed to get some of them. The cases are bigger than you expect,” said an informed source who asked not to be named.

Tobiko had on December 4, 2014 given the team 30 more days to finish its work. “In light of the foregoing, the joint team is now required to finalise its work and report back within the next 30 working days,” said Tobiko in a statement on December 4.

The statement was also signed by Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) Chairman Mumo Matemu.

Tobiko said the team’s request was necessitated by the nature, magnitude, scale and complexity of the outstanding assignment, new leads to be pursued and outstanding requests for mutual assistance.

He added that the request was necessitated by the number of crucial witnesses who are yet to record statements, potential suspects to be interrogated and statements recorded and the voluminous nature of the documents and reports to be reviewed and analysed.

The team was formed on October 30, 2014 to address outstanding areas identified as critical to successful prosecution.

EACC had in late October sent five files to the DPP, recommending that at least 10 people be prosecuted over cases in which Kenya lost billions of shillings to faceless companies.

The Inquiry files had initially been submitted by then Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to the Attorney General in September 2006.

However, upon review, the AG returned them to KACC in October 2006 for further investigations.

Tobiko has declined to name those named in the files and warned that disclosure would hamper investigations, urging Kenyans to be patient.

“Investigations into the Anglo-Leasing Scandal have in the past been hampered by numerous legal challenges lodged by suspects including issuance of stay orders, conservatory orders, pre-emptive injuctions and prohibitory orders. This is likely to happen again in the event of a pre-mature disclosure of names of suspects,” said Tobiko.

Matemu announced the suspects were both Kenyans and foreigners, but declined to name them.

Matemu said they had also recommended that the suspects’ bank accounts be frozen and that the Government seizes money obtained fraudulently.

The development turned a new leaf on the long winding and controversial campaign to unmask the architects of the Anglo Leasing scandal that refers to 18 security-related contracts through which billions of taxpayers’ money was lost.

Among those who had been grilled in the probe included businessman Deepak Kamani, his father Chamanlal Kamani and the whistle blower in the case, former Permanent Secretary John Githongo.