The <strong>Navy</strong> Ship Deal Part 3 Supporting Document 3 Africa Confidential OSIEA www.marsgroupkenya.org 25
www.africa-confidential.com 20 October 2006 - Vol 47 - N° 21 blue lines Welcome to the new 12-page Africa Confidential. The time is right for expansion. Elections and key party congresses are due in many of Africa’s biggest countries in the next 18 months, and the outcomes will decide the shape of the continent’s leadership over the next five years. The current boost to African growth, the strongest since the late 1970s, is fuelled by commodity demand from India and China, which are establishing new trade and investment routes. Africa is also attracting fast-growing private funds, which are buying equities and treasury bills in what some see as the emerging markets’ last frontier. The USA’s war on terror – with deployments in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and along West Africa’s seaboard – and the new economic power of Asia echo the Cold War era, when African regimes played off one side against the other. One positive sign is the new political activism that demands more accountability and better governance. For every anti-corruption movement that is closed down, more spring up, determined to check commercial and political abuses. Whatever their successes, our pages will be full of the inside stories. kenya The anti-corruption collapse The failure of Justice Ringera’s investigations reinforces the growing criminalisation of the state Attorney General Amos Wako’s dismissal of the <strong>Kenya</strong> Anti-Corruption Commission’s (KACC) investigation into five state contracts will effectively block the cases until after next year’s national elections. It was clear that these contracts and the Anglo-Leasing passport scandal, which prompted the dismissal of three of President Mwai Kibaki’s Ministers, Chris Murungaru (Security and Transport), Kiraitu Murungi (Justice and Energy) and David Mwiraria (Finance), had become the government’s biggest political liability and a symbol of its failure to tackle corruption (AC Vol 45 No 15). Many <strong>Kenya</strong>ns now believe that Kibaki’s government is at least as corrupt as that of his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi, even if they are unsure that voting for an opposition alliance, such as the Orange Democratic Movement under Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, would cut graft more effectively. Perhaps the voters will now consider more seriously the small anti-corruption political party which, we hear, is set to contest next year’s national elections. For now, public confidence in the government’s anti-corruption institutions, judiciary and police services has shattered. Concerns about state corruption are growing as pressure mounts for parties to raise campaign finance for next year’s national elections. wako under attack Wako, who has been under heavy attack from Justice Minister Martha Karua for several weeks, handed back the KACC contract investigation files on six grounds, pointing to serious gaps and deficiencies in the evidence produced by investigators. This was just two weeks after KACC Chairman Aaron Ringera announced that his investigators had established a cast-iron case against the alleged miscreants. Under <strong>Kenya</strong>’s constitution, only the Attorney General or his appointed delegates can prosecute cases. The Anglo-Leasing scandal was conspicuously missing from the dossier. Ringera said on 2 October that he had forwarded files to Waco on 27 and 28 September, recommending the prosecution of four unnamed former ministers and several unnamed former permanent secretaries in relation to Anglo-Leasing type corruption cases. A serving minister was included in the list in connection with four false travel claims. Wako’s rejection of the KACC’s investigations seriously undermines Ringera, raising questions over his competence and determination to pursue these zambia 4 nigeria 5 south africa 6 côte d’ivoire 9 kenya 2 The Titanic sails at dawn The polls were wrong and Michael Sata lost to President Mwanawasa. All for one, not yet Facing graft charges, state governors are losing their nerve. Toughest election ever The ANC battles over the December 2007 conf erence. Diamonds, gold and guns Both sides exploit the underground economy to pay for weapons. east africa 10 gabon/e.guinea 11 pointers 12