Obama seeks to freeze Mwau's assets over claims he is drug lord

Kilome MP and 1992 presidential candidate John Harun Mwau, is in list of alleged drug lords whose assets and accounts US President Barack Obama is seeking to seize.

Obama has called for sanctions against Mwau, the flamboyant and super-rich businessman-cum-politician, renown for his dark glasses, black leather jackets, and meticulousness when it comes to attention to rules. It, however, seems, if Obama is right, there is one rule he has ignored — that of keeping off bad company and chasing dirty money, for they ruin one’s reputation and a one-way ticket either to prison or life as a fugitive.

In 1992 Mwau sought to rule Kenya under the banner of his party PICK where he styled himself as The Boss. The party motto was borrowed from title of American author Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.

The book, which sold in millions, focused on the secret power of the mind and personal drive in changing one’s fortunes.

The other Kenyan named along with Mwau, who vehemently denied in Parliament he is into the illicit trade, is a businesswomen identified as Naima Mohammed Nyakiniywa. Obama listed the two Kenyans as specifically designated narcotics traffickers. The businesswoman, showed to go with several names: Mama Lela a.k.a Nyakiniywa, Naima Mohammed or Mama Naima. She was first in the list followed by Mwau whose date of birth was given as June 24, 1948.

Mwau’s diplomatic passport was listed as A921579 and Passport A608142 with alternative passport B037832. It also showed Mama Lela was born in 1962 in Kenya, and holds passport number A735832.

Designated drug lords

Obama used the US Kingpin Act to request for the freezing of the assets of all those named in the list released on June 1, when Kenyans marked the day they attained self-rule.

The US Act of 1999, freezes the assets in the United States of International drug traffickers. It denies designated drug lords access to US financial and commercial systems.

The Act requires that America’s Secretary of Treasury, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defence, and Director of CIA co-ordinate to identify drug kingpins and propose them to the President for sanctions. It also calls for the President to report to the Special Congressional Committees by June 1, of every year.

All those listed by Obama were put in a list of notorious drug traffickers from the South American drug trafficking havens of Mexico, and Columbia. Others in the list of 10 allegedly most wanted drug barons globally included two nationals of Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan.

Also on the list was notorious Mexican drug trafficker Torres Manuel a.k.a Torres Felix or Manuel Felix De Jesus, also known as EL Ondeado and countryman Macho Prieto a.k.a Araujo Inzunza, Gonzalo and Kyrgzstan national Kolbayev, Kamchybek Asanbekovich a.k.a Kolbaev.

Sources said Mwau’s business empire is linked to a warehouse at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, a ground-handling firm at the same airport, and one of the largest local tyre manufacturing companies.

Business Empire

On Thursday Naima’s lawyer told The Standard that she was innocent and is not involved in drug trafficking.

Ms Naima Lela said she deals in legal business and wondered why her name was in the list that is now in the hands of local and international security agencies.

The woman married to a former councillor in the city has a wide businesses empire, ranging from cyber-cafes, saloons, motor-vehicle spare parts shops, and rental houses.

She claimed to be doing business with the Government and more especially the Ministry of Local Government, in which she has several tenders. The mother of three, who is currently in Tanzania, is expected back in the country within a week.

Through her lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, the woman disputed claims she was arrested in the neighbouring country, in possession of drugs.

"She is not a drug dealer. My client does genuine business to educate her children," Ombetta told The Standard.

Mwau has sued former US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger for linking him to drug trafficking. In the suit filed at the High Court, the MP sought a declaration from the courts that the criminal complaint contained in Ranneberger’s ‘Dossier’ presented to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was an infringement on his rights.

Through his advocate, Alloys Kwengu, he sought a declaration from the Government that his fundamental rights be protected from infringement by the ambassador. In the petition, which sought 49 declarations, Mwau complained Ranneberger had overstepped his mandate by purporting to investigate and give findings of alleged criminal offences in Kenya.

The former Trade Assistant Minister, who was dropped after Ranneberger claimed he, and two other MPs and a Mombasa businessman were drug traffickers.

Reverts figures

Mwau claimed Ranneberger filed a criminal complaint to KACC against him last November, and subsequently held an international press conference and said he had handed over to KACC names of drug barons. He added the ambassador later delivered the same criminal complaint to Prime Minister Raila Odinga on November 29, last year. The same report was later handed over to the Commissioner of Police for investigation, which the Internal Security Minister George Saitoti presented to Parliament.

Secret cables on Kenya sent to the US by Michael Renneberger — and unmasked by WikiLeaks — gave an interesting story on a giant supermarket chain allegedly linked to Mwau. The cables alleged that the first expanding chain was being funded with drug money.

According to Ranneberger’s cables, Kenyan auditor Peter Odhiambo exposed billions of shillings of tax evasion and money laundering at his former employer, a banking institution, by a group of major companies partly owned by Mwau and another MP. Odhiambo had reportedly moved from Barclays Bank to the other bank in May 2003, as the internal auditor and within two months noticed suspicious transactions in accounts lacking customer identification information required by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Know Your Customer regulations. Some accounts also appeared to violate CBK prudential limits on loans and liquidity.

Reverts figures

The bank that is now under statutory management allegedly concealed the violations by manipulating the figures just before the end of the month submissions were compiled, or before visits from external or CBK auditors, and then reverted the figures immediately afterwards.

The General Manager told Odhiambo not to write down anything about the suspicious accounts in any report the CBK auditors might see.

Odhiambo was said to have identified the companies involved in tax evasion and money laundering as the five companies in the supermarket chain.

Odhiambo stated that, although six South Asian Kenyans were listed as the owners of the supermarket chain, some of them were proxy holders of shares actually owned by Mwau and a colleague in Parliament.

Odhiambo noticed a deposit of Sh10 million a day into accounts of two sister supermarket chains and according to Ranneberger, he suspected the funds were smuggling proceeds from Mwau’s container depot company, Pepe.

Odhiambo believed the perpetrators evaded about Sh43 billion in taxes, but that Kenya Revenue Authority had been deliberately understating the figure.

For example, one acquaintance at the Kenya Revenue Authority told Odhiambo some revenue collection officials used to receive Sh5 million per month from the group.