E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Githongo Sets Three Conditions For Return

Former Ethics permanent secretary John Githongo has expressed willingness to return home from his self-imposed exile in London — but only if the Government meets certain conditions.

At the same time, Mr Githongo repeated the startling claim that President Kibaki was aware that tape recordings of conversations involving his Cabinet ministers and other close allies were being made.

Mr John Githongo

Responding to readers’ questions sent to him by the Saturday Nation this week, Mr Githongo said he would like to return home, but only after the Government gets to the bottom of the multi-billion-shilling Anglo Leasing scandal.

His specific conditions are that the State makes a full disclosure on the scandal, prosecution of all the prime suspects, and return of the money paid out to shadowy companies.

Mr Githongo also promised to spill more beans on the scandal in which the State paid out billions of shillings in questionable deals, unless the Government takes decisive action against the suspects.

Responding to a question on his now famous tapes, Mr Githongo said he had informed the President that he sometimes carried a “recording device”.

Among the prominent personalities whose conversations Mr Githongo claims to have recorded include Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and former Finance minister David Mwiraria.

However, Mr Murungi has dismissed the voice in the tape released by Mr Githongo as a fabrication, saying the voice is not his. On his part, Mr Mwiraria has declined to comment on a recording released by the former PS last month.

Mr Githongo maintains that he was not unpatriotic in releasing information to the public but desires that Kenyans should know the truth and then make their own judgment.

Dossier with President

“All the recordings that I have released thus far, and others, have been with both the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and with Justice (Aaron) Ringera of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) since February and March 2006,” says the former PS.

“My dossier containing summaries of the statements reflected in the tape recordings, have been with the President since 2005. I will release this evidence for Kenyans to assess for themselves, as long as the institutions that are constitutionally empowered to act on such information and hold the Government to account continue trying to discredit this evidence. My loyalty remains to the Republic of Kenya and her people,” he added.

Mr Githongo accuses attorney-general Amos Wako and Mr Justice Ringera of conspiring to discredit evidence he presented to them in order to kill the Anglo Leasing ghosts.

Last month, Mr Justice Ringera published a Kenya Gazette notice saying that the recordings provided by Mr Githongo were “unintelligible” and could not form the basis of investigations. In the same notice, it was stated that Mr Githongo was not recognised in law as an investigator.

This week, the former PS insisted that the evidence he had given was credible, was more than the public already knew and he would keep revealing more as long as the institutions entrusted by the public with that responsibility did not do it.

Investigations

He also revealed for the first time that he gave President Kibaki a blow-by-blow account of his investigations into the scandal and even informed him before he started recording Anglo Leasing-related conversations with key government officials.

The recordings began when it became “obvious to me that eventually, it would be my word against the word of a number of very senior public officials at the very heart of the Kibaki administration keen on defending their illicit actions”.

Mr Githongo also confirmed that British police have given him an “elevated security status” owing to fears for his life.

He, however, says that he was not living off the UK government.