E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Githongo Puts Kibaki, Karua, Ringera on The Spot

The Anglo Leasing ghosts have returned haunt President Kibaki's Government with dramatic revelations that the country's chief graft buster, Mr Aaron Ringera, was covering up the affair.

President Ribaki's former anti-corruption adviser, Mr John Githongo, said Ringera pulled him aside during the team's London visit early this year and asked that he stops pursuing the perpetrators of the scam that has forced at least three high profile resignations. The director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission reportedly justified this by saying "the culprits had already suffered enough".

Githongo said Ringera had made it clear that there would be no Anglo Leasing prosecutions "until 2008, if ever", effectively shielding the culprits until after next year's General Election. Said Githongo: "While in London in March... for the Kacc hearings, Mr Justice Ringera told Prof (Makau) Mutua and I that we should drop our pursuit of the perpetrators of the Anglo Leasing scandals because, as he put it, 'the culprits had already suffered enough'".

He said this happened in the presence of Dr John P Mutonyi and Mr Hussein Were, the Kacc officers who accompanied Ringera to London. Mr Were has since been sacked after he reportedly started closing in on some highly sensitive cases. Githongo said Ringera also warned . him not to underestimate the "pain that you have caused certain people". The self-exiled anti-corruption crusader made the shocking revelations in a statement e-mailed to The Standard newsroom yesterday. Also joining m the fresh attacks against the Kibaki Administration over the handling of Kenya's biggest scandal in recent times was Lang'ata MP Raila Odinga and parliamentary aspirant Mr Tony Gachoka.

The attacks appear to have been provoked by Justice minister Martha Karua's Sunday's remarks on the scandal, which has rattled Kibaki's Administration to the core. Accusing the Government of bungling the Anglo Leasing affair, Raila dismissed Karua's announcement on new measures to expose the masterminds of the scandal as diversionary. He described it as yet another "poor attempt to distract the Kenyan people from the failures of the Government in dealing decisively with grand corruption". The former Roads minister said five months after Parliament adopted the.

Public Accounts Committee, which recommended specific action be immediately taken, the Government is yet to act. He said Karua personally led the Government side to support the report's adoption. "In fact, Karua lauded the report in a most notable and visible manner," he said. Posed Raila: "What happened since then and now, nearly five months after the event, to set Karua on another path?"

Karua had told a hurriedly convened news conference at her Co-operative House office that the Government would soon release a list of those who negotiated and approved all the 18 Anglo Leasing type-contracts. She said the details would include the ministers and permanent secretaries who signed the contracts and the amounts involved. This would enable Kenyans to know "the truth" about the scandals that have hang on the neck of the Narc administration since 2003.

But Raila countered that the Government was in panic as lhe corruption agenda remains unresolved and unmanaged under its watch, including the Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing and the Artur Brothers saga. Yesterday, Githongo waved away accusations that he had refused to cooperate with the Kenya' Anti-Corruption Commission in its investigations into the Anglo-Leasing affair. He said claims he refused to authenticate his statement were totally untrue. Expressing his dismay and disappointment at Karua's remarks and the inordinate length of time the Government was taking to deal with what are "very serious matters in our democracy", the Senior Associate Member of 8t Antony's College at Oxford University, England, dismissed claims he refused to co-operate with the authorities.

In his view, the sentiments were not the type one should expect from a top Government official charged with fighting corruption. He added: "It seems clear to me that the Government is looking for any pretext to kill the Anglo-Leasing investigations. Unfortunately, this event will not just fade away and I remain duty-bound to assisting in its resolution." Githongo also spoke of the bizarre disappearance of audio tapes he had reportedly recorded while making statements t6 Kacc. "For the avoidance of future doubts and at my express insistence, Mr Justice Ringera had made arrangements together with the Kenya High Commission in March to have our entire appearance before the Kacc audiO-recorded," said Githongo.

He recalled that in those sessions, he provided Ringera with all the information Kacc requested and more, adding: "I believe that we gave him the most complete accounting of what I knew about those scandals. The Kacc officers who had accompanied Ringera at those sessions - Dr Mutonyi and Mr Were - not only recorded the sessions on tape, but also took copious notes. " Githongo said much to his surprise, Ringera later informed him that for some unknown reason, the taping sys- tem had failed to record the proceedings; "I took the news of the failure of the recording system with incredulity as it had been our common intention to have a detailed recording of the entire event to avoid the very kind of later distractions and misinfornlation Kenyans are now being subjected to by the minister ostensibly in-charge of overseeing the affairs of the Justice sector in Kenya," he said.

Before speaking out of turn, Githongo said, Karua should have asked him to detail the extent of his co-operation with the Kacc if the matter was so important to her and in pursuit of natural justice. "For the record, let me categorically state that Ms Karua is flatly wrong and I can only speculate on the basis of her intervention on behalf of Kacc, which is an autonomous Commission, or how and why she would be privy to its investigations," Githongo stated. Githongo then laid out what he called the history of his assistance and cooperation with Mr Justice Ringera and the Kacc.

He asked Karua to stop looking for red herrings and scapegoats. Instead, Githongo advised Justice Ringera and the Kibaki Government - all of whom he said were aware of the perpetrators - to zealously investigate the matter and bring to book those who were culpable. Githongo said in December 2005, he sent out to Mr Justice Ringera a report he had prepared on the Anglo Leasing affair with a signed cover letter. "I spoke to him (Ringera) on phone and he confirmed receipt... A similar report had been made available to H E the President in November 2005. I sent the report to President Kibaki. first since it is he that I reported directly to in my previous capacity as the PS for Governance and Ethics," Githongo explained.

Yesterday, Raila told a news conference at a Nairobi hotel that a smear campaign. to prevent Githongo from revealing more was under way. Said he: "In fact, to say the Government has dragged its feet so far be- cause Githongo has yet to append his signature to a complaint is hogwash." He said while it was a fact the Anglo Leasing contracts were initiated and endorsed by the Kanu Government, they had been abused by the Narc Government. "The previous Government approved lease financing as a concept and there is nothing wrong with this. What is wrong is the abuse of lease financing to perpetuate corruption," he said. Raila said ODM-Kenya's registration and its planned national meet-thepeople tour, which kicks off in Eldoret this Friday, had sent the Government into panic and was out to besmirch some of its leaders.

"How high up did Anglo Leasing go? he asked. "The agenda that chased the President's staunchest supporters Kiraitu Murungi, Chris Murungaru and David Mwiraria out of office has now resurfaced as a clean agenda of the Government". On his part, former Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi said he never signed any Anglo-Leasing deals while at the Ministry of Transport and Communication. Mudavadi termed Karua's statement to the effect that he signed the Anglo- Leasing type deals as "malicious".

Speaking to The Standard on phone, Mudavadi - who is abroad on a private visit - said he had no executive powers to sign for the deals. "As a minister, I had no powers to sign any contract". He said the move to link him to the scandal was aimed at mudslinging him because of his interest in the presidency. "They are targeting us in ODM-Kenya. We are many who have been targeted by the Government, but we will not allow them to soil our names," said Mudavadi.