THE Kenyan Parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in its finance minister Amos Kimunya and are urging that he and other officials be suspended over alleged fraud, revealed a government enquiry led by Kenya’s Attorney General.
However, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who claims that the sale of the luxury Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi was “false, fraudulent and designed to deceive,” has since set up a committee to investigate the sale saying that no one would be spared if there was evidence of fraud in the deal and this committee are also calling for the Governor of the Central Bank and the head of National Security Intelligence have also been called to step down.
The hotel was allegedly sold for a third of its value, in that the recorded value of the hotel was $115m but it was allegedly sold for $45m. Mr Kimunya, who claims to be a close ally of President Mwai Kibaki, is denying any wrong doing in said sale to a local company with Libyan interests and said in Parliament on Wednesday that his hands are totally clean on this transaction.
Apparently the owner, Kamlesh Pattni, claims that surrendered his interest in the Grand Regency Hotel in exchange for amnesty in connection with outstanding corruption charges against him. It seems the Government compensated him millions in dollars in a fake gold export scheme commonly identified as the “Goldenberg scandal”.
Obviously this situation has led to renewed pressure on the power-sharing government. The sale was set up after violent clashes over the recent disputed elections. Prime Minister Raila Odinga is leading the investigations.
