NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 4- President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday promised to ‘comprehensively respond’ to the pandora papers leaks by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), after he was featured alongside his family members, as having secret offshore accounts and firms.
The leakage has put his name and that of his family in the global spotlight, with his sincerity to the fight against corruption put to test.
For example, the UK Guardian reported that President Kenyatta “will come under pressure to explain why he and his close relatives amassed $30m of offshore wealth, including property in London” after portraying himself as an enemy of corruption.
According to Finance Uncovered, the Kenyatta family has used offshore companies to buy two more properties in the UK.
ICIJ reported that “As Uhuru Kenyatta mounted a political comeback by campaigning against corruption, his family’s secret fortune was growing offshore, a massive new leak shows.”
The leaked documents show that Kenyatta’s family has for years, ICIJ said, “been secretly accumulating a personal fortune behind offshore corporate veils.”
“Kenyatta, along with his mother, sisters, and brother, have for decades shielded wealth from public scrutiny through foundations and companies in tax havens, including Panama, with assets worth more than $30 million, according to records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with more than 600 reporters and media organizations around the world.”
The use of off-shore companies is not illegal or by itself evidence of wrongdoing, but news organizations in the consortium said such transactions could be used to hide wealth from tax collectors and other authorities.
In a brief statement dispatched to newsrooms by State House spokesperson Kanze Dena on Monday, the President said; “That these reports will go a long way in enhancing the financial transparency and openness that we require in Kenya and around the globe. The movement of illicit funds, proceeds of crime and corruption thrive in an environment of secrecy and darkness.”
He added that, “The Pandora Papers and subsequent follow up audits will lift that veil of secrecy and darkness for those who can not explain their assets or wealth. Thank you.”
The President was in Ethiopia and was expected to proceed to Barbados.
The records – from the Panamanian law firm Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) – show that the family owned at least seven such entities, two registered anonymously in Panama and five in the British Virgin Islands.
“One BVI company owned a home in central London, according to the records, and two other companies held investment portfolios worth tens of millions of dollars. The Kenyattas’ offshore wealth, revealed here for the first time, represents part of an estimated half-billion-dollar family fortune amassed in a country where the average annual salary is less than $8,000 a year,” ICIJ reported.
‘Client 13173’
The BBC, which reported seeing the leaked papers reported that, “the Pandora Papers reveal that in 1999, Mrs Kenyatta (Mama Ngina Kenyatta) and her two daughters, Kristina and Anna, set up an offshore company – Milrun International Limited – which was incorporated in the BVI.
According to the ICIJ, Mrs Kenyatta and her daughters were advised by experienced international wealth experts from the Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), which recruited Alcogal, a Panamanian law firm specialising in setting up and administering offshore companies.
The consortium says invoices from Alcogal to the bank show that the Swiss advisers referred to the Kenyattas with the code “client 13173”. “
The family is said to have acquired an apartment in Central London which according to the BBC, “was until recently rented by British Labour MP Emma Ann Hardy, is now estimated to be worth close to $1.3m.”
“She is shocked at what this investigation has uncovered, and believes it shows why more transparency is urgently needed,” her statement, quoted by BBC, said.
The Kenyatta’s are said to have been much of their offshore wealth at the same time as the rising of the President’s political star.
Two offshore companies were created during an investigation into the alleged looting of the public treasury during the watch of President Daniel Arap Moi, Kenyatta’s former political patron.
Details of the Kenyatta family’s offshore wealth have been brought to light by the Pandora Papers, a collection of more than 11.9 million records from 14 law firms and other service providers based in the United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Panama, Singapore, and other tax havens.
ICIJ said, “the investigation has revealed assets of 35 current or former world leaders, including the king of Jordan, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, and Kenyatta’s fellow African leaders Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo.”
The Pandora Papers – 12 million files – is the biggest such leak in history.
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