US report links Kenyan politicians to dirty cash

mediamaxnetwork.co.ke/peopledaily

A damning report linking Kenyan political campaigns to drugtrafficking money was yesterday tabled before the United States Congress leaving Kenya with rotten egg on the face. The report by the United States Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs cites Kenya as a “major transit country” for drug shipments across the world and an emerging “major financial crime and money laundering hub.”

The 2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report singles out Kenya for being a significant transit country for a variety of illicit drugs , including “Southwest Asian heroin and South American cocaine”, but also shockingly, for having an increasing domestic user population.

It warns, however, that stemming this flow of illicit drugs is an enormous challenge “due to pervasive corruption and lack of political goodwill from the government.” “Drugtrafficking organisations take advantage of corruption within the Kenyan government and business community.

Proceeds from drugtrafficking are used to further fuel the corruption of Kenyan institutions, adversely impacting the lives of citizens far removed from the drug trade. Drug barons use proceeds to contribute to political campaigns and to buy influence with government officials , law enforcement officers , politicians, and the media,” says the damning report in part. Worryingly, it also notes that despite rhetoric from Kenya government officials, there has been “a lack of action in the form of high-level prosecutions or interdiction.”

“Only a tiny fraction of the drugs believed to transit in and through Kenya are seized by authorities. Due to a lack of both political will and institutional capacity, arrests rarely lead to convictions,” notes Volume I of the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on.

“When convictions do occur in Kenya, they are of lower level couriers and distributors,” adds the report. On money laundering, it raises the red flag on Kenya’s worrying meteoric rise as a money laundering and financial crime hub.

“Kenya remains vulnerable to money laundering and financialfraud . Money launderingand terrorism financing activity occur in both the formal and informal sectors, and derives from both domestic and foreign criminal activity,” it says. Such activities, it notes, include transnational organised crime, cybercrime, corruption, smuggling, trade invoice manipulation, illicit trade in drugs and counterfeit goods, trade in illegal timber and charcoal and wildlife trafficking.

“Kenya’s proximity to Somalia makes it an obvious and attractive location for the laundering of certain piracy-related proceeds and a financial facilitation hub for al-Shabaab, a UN-and US.- designated group,” says Volume II of the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on Money Laundering and Financial Crimes March 2015. Mid last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed that his government will wage a sustained war on drug trafficking.

Uhuru, who personally led an operation to blow up a ship and destroy heroin worth more than Sh1 billion, warned the port of Mombasa would no longer be a passage for the importation of illicit drugs.

“We will not allow drug barons to destroy the future of our young people. We will track and deal with them decisively,” he said in Mombasa. Uhuru said at the time that the destruction of the heroin sent a clear signal to drug traffickers that they will not be allowed to continue their illegal trade at the expense of the Kenyan youth. But the report reveals how traffickers continue to exploit Kenya’s long Indian Ocean coastline and lack of adequate security controls at the Mombasa Port.

“Southwest Asian heroin is transported in multi-hundred kilogram quantities by small oceangoing vessels called dhows across the Indian Ocean to the Kenyan coastline.

Once in Kenya, the heroin is distributed to retail markets and user populations throughout Africa, Europe, and North America,” it says. Shockingly, it emphasises that South American cocaine is brought into Kenya by commercial air couriers arriving on international flights to Nairobi for further distribution to other African locations and Europe.