I strongly suspected that this was all about KTIG (Kenyan diaspora living in America), their loss of 3rd mobile bid and subsequent clumsy attempts to legally obfuscate the eventual award to Econet. It must really feel bad to see that Econet are finally getting their network live. Woyeeeee.... I remember 3-4 years ago saying that when I see the Econet signal (though I understand they are adopting a different brand name) as an available network in Kenya that I would say a silent prayer for the righteous..... Now maybe I should just laugh hysterically! Brian On Oct 9, 2008, at 2:10 PM, John Maina wrote:
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "mwananchi@hushmail.com" <mwananchi@hushmail.com> To: j.maina@ymail.com Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 7:47:34 AM Subject: PS Ndemo and Econet scandal...
John,
Interesting discussion on Kictanet, perhaps one should have warned you before hand that Kictanet is laden with vested interests who will gladly forego accountability and transparency as long as they themselves benefit or will benefit from Ndemo's rewards for singing his praises and not holding him to account as the public servant he is. Certainly he has done some good things for the country but he has also enabled the commission of monumentally bad matters.
Whenever truth is told, hardcore supporters of Ndemo led by one Brian Longwe (who has interestingly benefited in several ways since Ndemo took office) predictably rush to chant "smear", "smear" in an attempt to obfuscate the truth. God forbid should Longwe ever be appointed to public office for that will mark the improper entrance of an individual who believes that accountability and transparency have no room and should exist in Kenya.
You may use the below as you deem fit, the truth needs to be told: ----
If Ndemo is so innocent why doesn't he invite the CID, KACC, the Attorney General's office and any other co-operating law enforcement agencies such as the UK's Serious Fraud Office and independent anti- corruption agencies to investigate the issue while inviting the public to forward any evidence they might have of misconduct, law breaking and corruption to the relevant agencies. Perhaps instead of Brian trying to pull wool over wananchis eyes, he could suggest this solution to the PS to help bring these matters to a logical conclusion once and for all.
Facts do not lie, naysayers loudly declaring their unwavering and blind support should present hard exonerating facts that rubbish the tip of the iceberg below or continue in their rather misguided act of aiding and cheering on the commission of corrupt and economic crimes against the nation. The below are just the surface of the scam that the PS has worked tirelessly to keep from public view.
Fact 1: Econet sought a gag order against its former Chief Financial Officer, Mwaura Njiri, a Kenyan, who forced by his conscience resigned when Econet sought to force him to sign a falsified affidavit that was aimed at defrauding KNFC of their legitimate shareholding in Econet Wireless Kenya. In attempting to do so Econet filed the following case:
CASE NO 05/12059 IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA (Witwatersrand Local Division)
Econet Wireless International Limited - 1st Applicant Econet Wireless Kenya Limited - 2nd Applicant Econet Wireless Ventures Limited - 3rd Applicant v Njiri, Elizaphanson Mwaura - Respondent
Entire Econet Court Filing: http://rapidshare.com/files/152242137/EconetSA.pdf
Respondent Njiri's Entire Court Filing response to Econet lawsuit: http://rapidshare.com/files/152242138/NjiriSA.pdf
5. Re Paragraph 7 "I have no knowledge whether the First Applicant is a subsidiary of the Third Applicant. I do not know when the "group" was founded, but I deny that it a leading telecommunications operator in Africa."
6. Re Paragraph 8 "I admit my citation and place of residence. I was employed by the First Applicant as Chief Financial Officer and also Head of Corporate Finance Development from July 2000 until 26th October 2004 when I resigned, largely due to the deterioration in my relationship with the First Applicant and Wazara. I admit that I played a central role in establishing the Second Applicant for purposes of the said tender."
http://rapidshare.com/files/152242138/NjiriSA.pdf
Fact 2: Mwaura Njiri under penalty of perjury unequivocally and in his position as CFO stated the following regarding Econet's finances. This is a damning indictment of the regulator for abandoning its fiduciary duties to the Kenyan public by failing to eliminate the licensee at the pre-qualification stage, thus the licensee was licenced contrary to the tender rules considering their true and correct balance sheets did not show a healthy turnover of over US$100m. The secret of the hundreds of millions of dollars in turnover is a story well told only that it neglected to mention that those were worthless Zimbabwean dollars:
"17.1 The First Applicant's balance sheet at that point in time was so bad that it was unable to obtain funds from any bank;" http://rapidshare.com/files/152242138/NjiriSA.pdf
Deloitte and Touche, Audited Financials of Econet Wireless Limited, the only Econet company that could have claimed to their long lost "Nigerian" operations that never were showing a mere turnover of $8m at the time of licencing in 2003 when it was necessary to show a consortium turnover of $100m which obviously the now insolvent KNFC did not have: http://rapidshare.com/files/152242139/Financials.pdf
Fact 3: Mwaura Njiri, Econet CFO since its early days, under penalty of perjury admits the Econet licence was cancelled by the Minister for Information and Communications despite his best efforts to prevent cancellation:
"32. Re Paragraphs 43 I admit the allegations contained herein and point out that when this eventuated Masiyiwa then requested me to assist the First Applicant by returning to Kenya and endeavouring to assist the Applicants by requesting the Minister and the Kenyan authorities not to cancel the licence.I agreed to so assist the First Applicant which then provided me with the necessary air ticket to enable me to travel to Nairobi together with the said Wazara for this purpose.While I tried my best to so assist the First Applicant I was unsuccessful in this regard." http://rapidshare.com/files/152242138/NjiriSA.pdf
Fact 4: KNFC was essentially bankrupt or near bankruptcy at the time of licensing culminating in KNFC being declared financially insolvent in 2006. Once again the regulator abandoned its fiduciary duties by deliberately allowing parties who could not pay licence fees as proscribed by the tender rules to be licenced contrary to public procurement regulations.
"The Minister for Co-operative Development Njeru Ndwiga yesterday confirmed that the Federation, which was said to have owned as much as 80 per cent of Econet’s bid for the their mobile licence, cannot meet its financial obligations.
The union is indebted to the tune of Sh40 million against an asset base of Sh25 million.
The minister said the cash-strapped Federation cannot honour its financial obligations that include Sh1.3 million in salary arrears, a Sh10 million loan from the Co-operative Bank, Sh5.6 million in statutory deductions and Sh800,000 in lawyers’ fees" - The Standard 29/6/2005
" KNFC has liabilities in excess of 64 million shillings against a total asset value of 20 million shillings." - 21/1/2006 http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=34599
Fact 5: The Chief legal representative of the Government of Kenya is Attorney General, Amos Wako. In 2007, PS Ndemo purported to settle a case the government had already won upholding the cancellation of the Econet licence by the Minister of Information and Communications. The PS further claimed to settle a case that Econet was destined to loose following a court order ordering them to deposit $15million as security for their $1 billion case against the Minister. Econet could not conceivably pay the $15 million for they still owed the government $12 million.
Investigations are necessary to establish: a) Whether PS Ndemo upsurped the powers of the Attorney General b) What the Attorney General's role and legal rationale was in arriving at the "settlement" c) Whether PS Ndemo acted against the interests of the Republic d) Whether PS Ndemo defied a binding and final ruling by Kenya's Judiciary e) Whether PS Ndemo through his actions committed abuse of abuse as defined under the Economic and Anti-Corruption Act of 2003 f) Whether PS Ndemo committed any other unlawful acts through is actions g) Whether PS Ndemo by trampling a bonafide court ruling and a Ministerial order contravened the Section 354 of Chapter XIII (Miscellaneous Offences Against Public Authority) of the Laws of Kenya which in states:
“Any person who knowingly utters as and for a subsisting and effectual document any document which has by any lawful authority been ordered to be revoked, cancelled or suspended, or the operation of which has ceased by effluxion of time, or by death, or by the happening of any other event, is guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment, as if he had forged the document,”
Visual proof of PS Ndemo signing the bogus "settlement agreement": http://rapidshare.com/files/152229210/en_bs_250707_econectknfc.mp4
It cannot be wished away that a legal precedent has already been established in Kenya for Government officials who claim to have been acting on orders from above that they remain responsible for actions carried out on the basis of their own personal actions and thus PS Ndemo bears absolute and full responsibility for appending his signature to the sham "settlement agreement" that he appended his signature to on "behalf" of the Republic:
Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule had a stern warning to public officers:
"It does not pay to take illegal orders from your superiors. However highly placed, you will still be responsible in the fullness of time."
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13141577_ITM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3591830.stm
It took 14 years after the fact to sentence Somaia and Oluga for their fraud against the Republic, public servants should not chide theselves that the passage of time makes one's illegal actions forgotten. Those they enable to engage in illegal acts might get away but the public servant will nonetheless carry their own cross.
Fact 6: The Econet matter has recently been planned for Cabinet discussion. This warrants PS Ndemo's investigation for his role in disenfranchising Kenyans and for continuing to make plans to legalise an illegal act of disenfranchisement into law by arbitrarily gazetting regulations that seek to place foreigners ahead of Kenyans:
"When contacted, Nyagah confirmed he had received the letter from the KNFC interim board, seeking their intervention on the issue of the shares, and their participation in rolling out the third mobile operator’s services.
Nyagah, whose main docket covers the co-operative movement, said he would address the concerns raised by KNFC at the Ministry and Cabinet level."
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143995477&cid=14&j=&m=& d=
The Cabinet ought to act with no holds barred in looking into PS Ndemo's involvement in the matter as well as his recent pandering to foreign interests at the expense of Kenyans. This is a serious national security matter that involves critical infrastructure in the country particularly coming at a time when foreigners stranglehold exceeds 80% of the economy. The issue of allowing foreigners to own 100% of ICT firms should be submitted to Parliament for those are the elected representatives of the Kenyan people, such critical decisions should not be left in the hands of someone who recently signed away access to the Kenyan Economy to Libyans and frequently echoes his admiration of foreigners. Let PS Ndemo name the foreigners who have approached him and who despise Kenyans so much that they would not dream of partnering with them:
"This rule is messing us up in terms of investments. There are large companies which want to invest in this country without partnering with other individuals," Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary at the Information Ministry, said in an interview.
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnJOE4950WH.html
Did PS Ndemo sign an agreement with Libyans promising them access to sectors of the Economy? YES http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143990641&cid=4
Fact 7: In 2006, Econet rushed to court and obtained exparte orders against the Government and the regulator causing a stay of the Minister's decision to cancel the Econet licence by the Minister of Information and Communications. The presiding and ruling judge, Justice Ibrahim Mohammed in his eventual ruling admonished Econet for abusing the court process and upheld the Minister's decision that cancelled the Econet licence while canceling the orders that Econet had improperly obtain. Case No 1640 of 2004 in the High Court of Kenya that the Republic won is the same case PS Ndemo misled the nation was a case in progress that was to be settled:
"Upon consideration, I am of the view that in effect, the Order No 5 to all intents and purposes is an ex parte quia timet injunction disguised as “an order of leave operating as a prohibition”. This Court has no jurisdiction to grant such an order in judicial review proceedings and if it had, it has been granted improperly and in breach of the principles of natural justice as there is no returnable date for an inter partes hearing between the parties. It is a permanent injunctive order which was given in violation of all the cardinal principles of natural justice. To allow it to continue to be in force for a minute longer would amount to a total miscarriage of justice. This Court of course, cannot allow this to happen. This court is supposed to be a harbinger and fountain of justice and not a perpetrator of injustice."
Entire Copy of Court Ruling upholding the Minister's decision thus permanently cementing the fact that the cancelled Econet licence remained indefinitely cancelled: http://rapidshare.com/files/152242136/Econet_v_Minister.pdf
Fact 8: The Econet scam which the PS continues to deliberately aid was named as scandal number 10 in Sir Edward Clay's list of 20 scandals committed against the Republic: http://rapidshare.com/files/152246719/20Scandals.pdf
Only the tip of the iceberg...
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