Witness terms Kimunya move on Anglo Leasing illegal

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Lawyer Ahmednassir Abdulahi, who was cross examining the witness, said the government was legally bound to pay Infotalent and that a caveat in the media announcing that the promissory notes would not be honoured was an illegality and “roadside declaration”.

Former Finance minister Amos Kimunya did not have legal authority to cancel payments to a foreign firm with which the government signed the multi-billion shillings worth Anglo Leasing contract, a Nairobi court was told yesterday.

A prosecution witness said all attendant promissory notes in the contract which made Kenya liable constituted an irrevocable, unconditional and legally binding commitment from the government to pay Infotalent Limited on demand.

“Each promissory note was subject to the laws of Switzerland and therefore could not be cancelled by any Kenyan authority,” said Herbert Anyanga, a Central Bank of Kenya debt management official said.

He was being cross examined in a case in which former Finance minister David Mwiraria, two former PSs and businessmen Deepak and Rashmi Kamani have been charged with a conspiracy to defraud the government.

Lawyer Ahmednassir Abdulahi, who was cross examining the witness, said the government was legally bound to pay Infotalent and that a caveat in the media announcing that the promissory notes would not be honoured was an illegality and “roadside declaration”.

Controller of Budget

“Each promissory note constituted an unconditional promise to pay on demand the sum stated in each, they were signed by the then minister of finance,” the witness said adding that the fact that some money was transferred to a foreign account attested that the process had the approval of the Controller of Budget.

It emerged that the Controller of Budget, who was then Auditor General Evans Mwai, approved payments as per contract but later disowned the move while auditing the very contract.

Mr Mwai earlier claimed he had not seen enough paper trail on the contract to make conclusive findings.

Yesterday, Mr Anyanga told the court that the project in question was budgeted for in the new loans section of the government kitty. He said documents showed that all legal procedures were followed and “there could not possibly be a conspiracy to defraud the government”.

“I am not aware of a conspiracy, all the Treasury did was lawful according to government procedures,” he said.