KACC probes PS over Sh1.4 billion Tokyo scandal

By Cyrus Ombati and David Ochami

The Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) has interrogated Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi over the controversial purchase of a diplomatic property in Japan.

Meanwhile, details of how Sh1.4 billion was paid upfront for the purchase of the controversial embassy plot in Tokyo, have emerged.

Officials said the PS was interrogated for five hours on Thursday at the Integrity Centre, the headquarters of the anti-graft agency in Nairobi.

Mr Mwangi will be recalled if and when the KACC detectives need him, sources said.

Other reports indicate there is anxiety at the Foreign Affairs ministry and Treasury following claims that several junior officers will be lined up for a criminal investigation, and later sacrificed to assuage public anxiety over the Sh1.1 billion scandal.

Informed sources said Mwangi was summoned to the commission to give information regarding the issue.

Ironically, his minister Moses Wetang’ula, who has defended the deal, wrote a letter to KACC on October 1, seeking a criminal investigation into the matter.

The commission also plans to question Wetang’ula on the scandal.

According to a report Defence and Foreign Affairs Departmental Committee chairman Adan Keynan tabled in Parliament last week, the deal’s paper trail is clear. Documents attached in the report show Kenya’s High Commission in Japan paid Sh1.4 billion to the property vendor in a hasty transfer after ignoring expert advise from its lawyer Yoshita Kijima.

The payment was apparently done on July 1 last year, 19 days after Kijima complained Kenya was committing a "fatal risk".

This included a pledge to pay 80 per cent of the property price before actual transfer and without the benefit of background check on its tax liabilities and the credit worthiness of the vendor(s).

Another payment of approximately Sh0.3 billion was made to Taeku Kuriyama, from whose family the Government had rented the property for 20 years.

The latter payment, according to documents tabled in Parliament, was in the form of a cheque through to The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.

They were signed by Allan Waweru Mburu, the then Charge d’ Affaires at the embassy and another employee, John Kenneth Njeru Nyaga.

Interestingly, the documents indicate Mburu entrusted himself as an agent of the Government in the real estate transaction including signing, purchase and sale contract, payment, transferring of ownership between Kenya and the property owners Nobuo Kuriyama and Taeko Kuriyama.

This, according to the committee, was against the Government Contracts Act, which says a contract made for the Government outside Kenya has to be authorised in writing on that behalf by the minister.

Same officers

The payments were, apparently, also authorised by the same officers.

Kijima had argued in a legal brief to the mission that in Japan, "we do not pay 80 per cent of the price upfront" and that the tradition was a payment of 10 to 20 per cent of the price before transfer and the balance, after change of registration.

Two agreements were signed by the then Charge d’ Affaires for the embassy Mburu and the PS Mwangi on June 30 last year, according to documents tabled in Parliament.

Parliament failed to debate the report after Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim ruled to adjourn the House following debate pitting Wetang’ula on one side and members on the other.