Rich crooks make a joke of police probes

Because of its value, gold has always enthralled humanity. It has been used as a means of building and protecting wealth: Civilisations have been constructed around it; wars have been fought over it, and kings have been overthrown over this precious metal. Kenya’s rich and the mighty have for a long time dabbled in gold trade from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So when the DRC President Laurent Kabila came calling last week over some two tons of gold smuggled from his country, which has disappeared, it was not because it is a new phenomenon but rather because of the quantities involved.

The meeting between Presidents Kibaki and Kabila resulted in the formation of a joint investigations team that was tasked with locating the gold.

The team is likely to return a blank. They will soon run into roadblocks because such illegal business involves crooks with powerful political connections that shield them from investigations or prosecution.

It is telling that two weeks ago, an enthusiastic and determined Kenya Revenue Authority investigator who had been tasked to get to the bottom of the matter was gunned down amid whispers that some prominent people were involved in the illegal gold that had disappeared from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Getting to the bottom of this murder could hold the key to the investigations, and here is a challenge for the police and other security agencies.