Simple question, have you read the report?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, what shocked us was that, even within the Attorney-General's Chambers, we were told that is not the preserve of the Attorney-General, but rather he joined the ping- pong of saying: "That is the responsibility of the procuring Ministry." In short, what am I saying? I am saying, to the amazement of our Committee, that a project that was initially supposed to cost the Kenyan Government, Kshs600 million miraculously developed to be a Kshs2.7 billion project. More interesting is that nobody, despite the amount of April 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 383 money we are talking about, can tell us how that contract was actually signed. According to the evidence given before us, senior politicians and civil servants denied the fact that they had even heard of Anglo Leasing and Finance Company Limited. Many did not even know where the agreements were signed, according to what they told us. We found it incredible that even in talking to the Treasury, we were told that signing a contract involving Kshs2.7 billion is an everyday affair, and that people can just sign it blindly without knowing what has been presented before them. By any standards, Kshs2.7 billion is no small amount of money. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have made a number of recommendations that we hope will strengthen some of these institutions to ensure, and I will get to that later on, that this ping-pong that we saw will never happen again in Kenya. I would like to move on to another area, which, to me, is most important. You will recall that I said that this House, in its wisdom, threw out the first report on the basis of expunging of names. The evidence that we received from Mr. Githongo finally gave this Committee the last leg in our stool that completed the circle; a circle involving businessmen, senior civil servants and politicians in our country, who have all along denied these claims by saying they were not aware. Actually, they knew what was going on. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Mr. Githongo told us that he was appointed in January, 2003 to be the advisor to the President on matters relating to corruption and integrity. He made it very clear to us that the President said that this was an issue that he held in high regard and, as such, he was responsible and answerable directly to His Excellency the President. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the evidence given to us indicates that Mr. John Githongo briefed His Excellency the President regularly on matters related to corruption. Actions taken by His Excellency the President also indicate that he was regularly briefed by Mr. Githongo. We saw some senior civil servants being dismissed by His Excellency the President.

Finally, a document was produced to us. This document is available to this House. After many long months of searching by Kenyans, including those of us in the PAC, for who were behind certain companies, a document that clearly indicates who was behind every contract was availed to us. Names were known. Why would individuals go to great length to protect individuals if they were not involved in a scandal? Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to refer to one particular individual, whom everybody claimed they did not know. In some of the evidence we have taken a man by the name Mr. Melvyn Kettering kept resurfacing. There were claims that this individual was not known. But it was revealed to us that there were some people who were familiar with Mr. Kettering. When the issue of who Mr. Kettering was raised by His Excellency the President, all those people who knew him claimed that they did not know him, thereby causing the President to instruct Mr. Githongo to investigate and find out who he was. Why did individuals go to such great length to hide the identity of such an individual, if they were not party to whatever that individual was doing? Mr. Speaker, Sir, Mr. Melvyn Kettering, as you will see from our report on page 56, is a director of Dynatech International. This is a company that was involved in the computerisation of the Treasury. You can see that he was also a consultant for LBA International of Scotland, a company which is involved in the procurement of a communication system for the Prisons Service. The same company, of which he was a director, shares addresses with other Anglo Leasing affiliates such as Anglo Leasing Finance Ltd itself. It also shares the same address with Forensic Science Laboratories Inc., and the Sound Day Corporation. Consequently, what the Committee was able to determine was that this is a scam that has been going on, and, we believe, still is going on. We believe more is known about it than has been made public to this Committee, and to the nation at large. Mr. Speaker, Sir, last but not least, the most amazing thing Mr. Githongo informed us was that during the process of procurement of passports, he warned that Anglo Leasing was a company whose directors had previously been involved in other such corrupt practices. No action was taken, purely on that decision alone. It was also clear that companies that deal with procurement of passports are not many as people may say. They are few. As you will see from the illustration at the end of our Report, page 55, of the 18 contracts, Mr. Githongo was able to link the 18 projects to three individuals in particular, namely; Messrs. Anura Perera, Amin Juma, Deepak Kamani and relatives. There are many relatives of Mr. Kamani mentioned there. All those projects were handled by the same individuals. It is, therefore, clear to us that this was not just a one-off thing. This was something that was developed over time and a lot of thought and energy were put up to create a system to continue robbing this country blindly. I have no fear in saying that those individuals have no loyalty to this country but to themselves. They existed in the previous Government and exist in the current one. Unless this House takes appropriate action, they will continue to exist even in the Governments to come.