Internal Security Minister George Saitoti (right) with the Democratic Republic of Congo Minister for Regional and International Integration Raymond Tshibanda (left) and the country’s Ambassador to Kenya Tadumi Onokoko (centre) after addressing the Press at Harambee House, Friday. [PHOTO: COLLINS KWEYU/Standard]




Top Government officials caught in web of blood gold

Top Government officials are said to be among members of an international smuggling ring involving gold and other high-value minerals from a neighboring country.

Investigations revealed that the smuggling network is well connected and is said to have a firm foothold in several key ministries, including Internal Security, Finance, Immigration, Environment, and Foreign Affairs. According to Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, some of the kingpins of the illicit trade are influential politicians in Government.


Yesterday, Saitoti — while remaining guarded on the details — revealed that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had interrogated some influential politicians in connection with the ring.

Among those helping with investigations is a Congolese citizen, who was arrested in Nairobi, Friday.

The suspects are believed to be behind the disappearance of 2.5 tonnes of the mineral stolen from eastern Congo and valued at Sh8 billion.

On Thursday, DRC President Joseph Kabila met President Kibaki, and their talks centred on smuggled gold and other minerals from the war-torn country.

The talks came within days of the murder of a Kenya Revenue Authority investigator, Joseph Cheptarus, who was on the trail of the smuggling ring that also, include a PNU activist, and the family of a minister allied to ODM.

CID boss Ndegwa Muhoro spent the better part of yesterday and Thursday night at Harambee House, briefing Saitoti and Kabila’s delegation on the status of the investigations.

The CID has been conducting the investigations together with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), and the Immigration Department.

Porous borders

Cheptarus, the slain KRA senior assistant commissioner, had been seconded to the investigations team. He was shot dead at around 1.15am last Saturday, as he entered his home in Nairobi’s South C Estate. The team had established that Nairobi had become a popular transit point for gold merchants from the DRC, serving genuine and illegal trade for overseas markets, because of lax security.

With porous borders and highly corruptible Immigration officials, Kenya is often used as a transit route for minerals, hardwood timber, and artefacts from DRC destined for markets in the Middle East, China, Belgium, Switzerland, India and the United States, according to multiple United Nations Security Council reports.

Gold and diamonds smuggled from Congo have featured prominently in Kenya, and during the Goldenberg Inquiry, Kamlesh Pattni — believed to have been the architect, gave detailed accounts of how he and his associates in the Kanu regime smuggled diamonds and gold from the DRC.

On the mysterious disappearance of the 2.5 tonnes of gold, investigators are focusing on how it was smuggled into the country before being trans-shipped to Dubai. It is also suspected that some of the gold found its way to South Africa, where investigators plan to visit as part of their probe.

A preliminary report handed over to Kibaki and Kabila details how smugglers use Nairobi as a transit hub.

The report prompted the two presidents to form a joint team to intensify the search for the multi- billion-shilling illegal gold consignment.

"They instructed police authorities in both countries to share information on suspected persons as well as registered dealers in minerals in the two countries," said Saitoti.

The two presidents acknowledged that illegal exploitation of minerals has been a source of conflict in eastern DRC, and welcomed the Lusaka Protocol that commits member states of the Great Lakes Region to end the trade, according to the Internal Security minister.

"They underscored the need to uphold the Lusaka and Nairobi protocols on management of minerals and agreed that Kenyan authorities vigorously pursue the ongoing investigations," added Saitoti.

He was speaking in his office when he received two ministers from the DRC — Regional and International Co-operation minister Raymond Tshibanda and his Mining counterpart, Martin Kabwelulu — minutes, before Kabila flew out.

Saitoti said the two presidents undertook to share information and intelligence on illegal trafficking of minerals.

The meeting came after weeks of a fruitless search for the 2.5 tonnes of gold worth Sh8 billion that disappeared from the DRC in January. The gold was destined for export to the United Arab Emirates.

Investigations began after the mineral-rich DRC requested the Interpol regional bureau in Nairobi to track suspected smugglers and seize any consignments on transit in Kenya. The illegal trade raises security concerns because of the huge amount of money the minerals attract in the black market. It is feared unscrupulous dealers could use the wealth to buy weapons and fuel fighting in an already volatile region.

The revelations emerged after more than 475 ingots of the commodity valued at Sh1.6 billion went missing at a warehouse in the Nairobi, and later found its way back to Goma, in the DRC, last December.

Custom warehouse

Lawyers in the Sh1.6 billion gold revealed that the commodity was headed to the US, for purchase by one Mukaila Aderemi ‘Mickey’ Lawal. Lawyer Punit Vadgama, acting for the US national, said his client denied that he was involved in the Sh8 billion disappearance.

Lawal, 50, had in January visited Nairobi and inspected the commodity in a warehouse said to have been at "a Customs warehouse" at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after overseeing its smelting.

Lawal, who was detained along with fellow Houstonian Carlos St Mary and two other businessmen on February 3 in Goma, had arrived on a jet ready to fly with the commodity when Congolese intelligence police intercepted them, impounded the plane, and seized almost $7 million and the gold bars.

It was then that Vadgama wrote to Kabila explaining the genesis of the issue. He said one Axiom contacted him in December to set up a Kenyan company to obtain licenses and permits for a legal gold transaction that supposedly began when "a person named David" approached St Mary in the US.

Vadgama said ‘David’ had agreed to sell Axiom 475kg of gold at a competitive price. The deal was to take place in Kenya and to be legally documented.

When a delegation of the American group arrived in Kenya, St Mary and his partners began to suspect they might be getting duped when they made partial payment and suddenly could no longer contact the Kenyan ‘owner’ of the gold who was brokering the deal identified as E. Michelle Malonga.

After notifying Kenyan police of the possible swindle in January, Malonga contacted Axiom that the gold had been taken to Uganda, and that the deal would have to be sealed there.

Further, Malonga is alleged to have said that the gold was in Congo and that the deal had to go down in Goma. They agreed, went to Goma, paid Malonga and his associates and the gold was loaded on a Nairobi-bound flight.

It was reported in Congo that the commodity was in the possession of men taking it to the residence of Gen Bosco Ntaganda, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Ntaganda has denied involvement in gold smuggling.


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