Monday, October 4, 2021 – President Uhuru Kenyatta’s war on corruption has seriously been dented after his family was caught red-handed stashing billions of shillings in offshore accounts, the money which has been drawn from Kenya’s dwindling economy.
Uhuru’s aggressive fight against corruption, poverty, inequality and uneven distribution of resources has all been a lie if the recent Pandora Papers leak is anything to go by.
The Pandora Papers, the biggest leak of financial papers in history and containing 12 million files and obtained by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), has linked Uhuru Kenyatta’s family to offshore bank accounts and companies valued at over Ksh3.3 billion.
The Kenyatta’s are arguably among the richest families in Kenya having investment interests in the hospitality sector, the banking industry, and farming among others.
They are also some of the biggest landowners in the country with swathes of land in various parts of the country.
According to the leaked financial papers, Kenyatta’s family, led by Mama Ngina Kenyatta, the incumbent President, his sisters and brothers, have amassed wealth offshore and in the tax havens of Panama and the British Virgin Islands.
The papers detailed that a Panamanian law firm identified as Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) holds records showing that the Kenyatta family owns at least seven companies and foundations in the tax havens.
“The records show that the family owned at least seven such entities, two registered anonymously in Panama and five in the British Virgin Islands,” details ICIJ.
The report further details that one of the entities owned by the Kenyatta’s in the British Virgin Island, owns a home in Central London, United Kingdom.
The British Virgin Islands is one of the most notorious tax havens in the world where billionaire world leaders and businessmen are known to stash billions of dollars.
The Pandora Papers, which are a collection of financial documents from 14 law firms and other service providers based in the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles, Panama and Singapore, went ahead to reveal that Mr. Kenyatta and his mother, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, are listed as the main beneficiaries of Varies Foundation, a trust-like foundation designed to manage and shelter wealth for beneficiaries.
The Pandora Papers named the Kenyatta’s among 35 other world leaders including President Ali Bongo of Gabon and the King of Jordan as among the most influential and significant persons with an unimaginable magnitude of wealth stashed offshore.
The inequality gap between the haves and the have nots has been made worse by the ever-rising cases of public money theft, pilferage and misuse of resources.
Uhuru’s tenure, which comes to an end after the August 9, 2022, General Election, has seen Kenya lose billions of shillings through scandals such as NYS, KEMSA, Afya House, NHIF, and the Ruaraka Land, but surprisingly no one has been jailed over the same.
.jpg)
0 Comments