By MOSES NJAGIH
KENYA: The MP who blew the whistle on a suspicious Goldenberg-like scandal involving two companies wants the Ministry of Mining compelled to give factual answers on local gold mining.
Fafi MP Barre Shill further told the parliamentary committee on Environment and Natural Resources that his probe into the suspected multi-billion scandal had caused “discomfort for some senior Kenyans”, who had launched a complaint with him.
“When I asked the question on gold exports in Parliament, some MPs followed me complaining that I had ruined their businesses,” said Shill, who dismissed claims that he had dropped his question on the gold exports. The MP said he will be expecting the Government to tell Kenyans how much gold is mined locally and from where it is sourced.
Shill maintained that the figures of the amount of local gold exported by two companies at the centre of the suspected scandal – Skyhawk International Limited and Ushindi Exports Limited – are exaggerated as part of a mega scam to defraud the Government. “It is either the gold being quoted by these two companies is the one smuggled from Democratic Republic of Congo or other neighbouring countries which are recorded as exports, or what we have is a mega money laundering business,” said Shill.
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The legislator, who sought a ministerial statement in the National Assembly on the gold exports in the country in June, maintained that the entire country cannot produce “even a fraction of the 3.2 tonnes of the mineral that the two companies are alleged to have exported last year”.
Shrouded in mystery
Shill faulted claims by the two companies that they had exported 1.9 tonnes of gold, worth Sh7 billion in five months between January and end of May this year; saying this would have transformed the lives of artisans in the areas that they claimed to have bought the mineral from.
“That is gold equivalent to two pick-ups. We want to know where this mineral is coming from because certainly it is not from Kenya. It does not matter what the documents say, this amount of gold cannot be found here,” he said.
He told the committee chaired by nominated MP Amina Abdalla that his investigations into the matter revealed that the whole affair was shrouded in mystery and that some Ministry of Mining officials and the office of the Commissioner of Mining was abetting the illegal business.
He claimed his investigations had further revealed that even the Kenya Revenue Authority was part of the scam, as its officials at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport had been sucked into the scandal.
“I have insisted that this is more than Goldenberg, very many people are involved in it,” he said.
