PHOTO/FILE Nambale MP Chris Okemo (right) and former KPLC chief Samuel Gichuru when they appeared in court last July. The two are facing money laundering charges in a UK court. 


State officials who have stashed money in foreign bank accounts may soon be smoked out, with the office of the Ombudsman saying it has started investigations.
Commission on Administrative Justice chairman Otiende Amollo said his team had met Central Bank of Kenya governor Njuguna Ndung’u to discuss efforts made to ensure that public servants were not flouting the law.
“We have moved on with our work. We have done a number of things. We have held meetings with the Central Bank of Kenya governor to find out modalities put in place to ensure State officers do not have accounts abroad,” Mr Amollo told a workshop discussing legislation on leadership and integrity at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Nairobi on Monday.
However, he could not give details of his team’s findings.
Section 76 (2) of the Constitution says that a State officer shall not maintain a bank account outside Kenya except in accordance with an Act of Parliament.
This includes member states of The Ombudsman intends to disqualify State officials found with foreign accounts from holding their positions.
The ‘‘Bringing the Billions Back: How Africa Can End Illicit Capital Flight’’ report by Kristina Froberg, shows the accumulated illicit capital flight from Kenya hidden in over 40 tax havens amounted to Sh566 billion (US$6.369 billion) as of 2010.
Last year, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), predecessor to the present Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), said it was getting more crucial information from governments and agencies on money stashed abroad.
Then KACC director Patrick Lumumba said ministers and other public officials operating bank accounts in other countries may have to close them to avoid losing their cash.
Independent anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has also been pushing for the repatriation of billions of Kenya shillings stolen from public coffers and stashed in foreign bank accounts.
In 2003, when President Kibaki took over government he promised to recover assets moved to foreign countries.
Kroll Associates, the company contracted by the government to trace assets spirited abroad by top officials of the Moi regime, found that at least Sh90 billion ($1 billion) had been moved overseas,
Most of the money looted between 1990 and 1995 was spirited to British, European and Canadian banks by powerful politicians and businessmen.
The government never acted on the report.
It is also widely believed that the proceeds of the Goldenberg and Anglo-Leasing scandals have found safe passage abroad, mainly in Western banks.