Kenya risks becoming a transit point and a haven for serious international crimes, including money laundering, a report released by a civil society and governance group has warned.
The Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) said money laundering was a crime that aided other crimes such as drug trafficking for which the country has recently received international attention.
Africog Executive Director Gladwel Otieno said political goodwill was needed if the country was to effectively fight international crimes.
“Some Kenyans have been named by the Obama administration as drug kingpins, a crime closely related to money laundering. This is an indicator of how the vice has taken root in the country,” said Otieno.
She said it was worrying that some public officers implicated in international crimes were still in office despite the Constitution being clear on the matter.
“Impunity still reigns in the country. Kenyans and the civil society must remain eternally vigilant and blow the whistle,” said Otieno.
Yesterday, constitutional lawyer and governance expert Wachira Maina who launched the report titled Smouldering Evidence: The Charterhouse Bank Scandal, said there was a systematic campaign to reopen the bank, which was closed in 2006.
Maina said three different audits undertaken between 2004 and 2006 by the Central Bank of Kenya raised serious questions about the operations of the bank.
“The investigation found strong indications that the bank’s clients were involved in both tax evasion and money laundering. The bank was also found to be violating the Banking Act,” said Maina.
He said money laundering involves making money that comes from illegal or criminal activity appear as if it came from legitimate sources and also converting proceeds from crime into assets that appear legitimate.
The report said Charterhouse facilitated money laundering by allowing certain customers to carry out unusually large cash transactions and/or split deposits and payments.
Otieno said the move by the Parliamentary Finance Committee to clear the bank of the money laundering allegations was suspect.
Former US ambassador Michael Ranneberger had alleged that the bank cost the Exchequer Sh20 billion in tax revenues.
