By Standard on Sunday Reporter

Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi appeared on Prime Time news saying he never met the ‘ghosts’ behind Anglo Leasing scandals.

Saying he took a personal vow to give journalists the wide berth, he broke his silence three years after the scandals swirled around him – taking him out of the Cabinet for nine months.

At the end of the interview he appeared to have revived the ‘ghosts’ through rekindling memory at a time the country is grappling with the pain of the unresolved maize and oil scams. He also renewed the interest of the nation in himself and how much he knew then.

The former Justice Minister also dropped the bombshell: A lawyer gave him a file on a court case involving the father of former Ethics and Governance Permanent Secretary John Githongo.

His statement contradicts the position of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission headed by his former law practice partner whose appointment he is believed to have influenced.

Kacc published a gazette notice claiming it had halted the multi-billion-shilling scandal investigation on the grounds the lawyer in question never actually gave Murungi Githongo’s father’s file.

Murungi’s admission throws a spin into one of the biggest scams to rock the Kibaki administration — by way of 18 dodgy contracts (11 inherited from Kanu) all of which the Auditor- General tabulated to have cost the country Sh56 billion.

Among other issues Murungi could have to grapple with is the circumstances in which the file came his way when it involved the father of a PS who said he was being pressurised to ‘go slow’ on the investigation, first because it was ‘about us’.

Secondly, Githongo junior said he was told by Murungi if he eased his foot off the investigation his father stood to benefit.

The file is believed to have contained details of a suit concerning a debt of Sh70 million owed by Mr Joseph Githongo following the purchase in the mid-1990s of a piece of land in the outskirts of the city.

Write off debt

Githongo junior claimed in an explosive dossier released three years ago that Kiraitu coerced him to drop investigation into the Anglo Leasing scandal in exchange for his father’s debt to be written off.

Kacc stated in a gazette notice dated January 19, 2007:

“The lawyer alleged to have given the file of Mr Joseph Githongo, (the father to the former PS) to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has denied ever giving the minister such a file. The investigation did not therefore establish commission of any offence.”

Ringera in addition said the investigation could not proceed because the self-exiled PS, who he dismissed as not being an investigator, had refused to record a formal statement.

In addition the recording of Githongo’s submissions before Ringera and his team in London, the judge said, backfired because of a technical hitch. The file was there forwarded to Attorney General Amos Wako.

“The investigation did not therefore establish commission of any offence. The file was forwarded to the Attorney General on November 6, 2006, with recommendation for closure. The recommendation was accepted by the Attorney on January, 15, 2007,” ran the Gazette notice part of whose contents Murungi contradicted.

On Friday, he said: “And when John Githongo came I showed him the file and I told him, ‘There was this lawyer who was saying you should go a bit slow on investigation because there are these things against your father…’”

Murungi added: “I was just reporting what the lawyer had told me. Then Githongo taped that. It was not that I was telling him to go slow. Githongo said he was going to take the file to his lawyers…what followed is laughter.”

Kiraitu said the lawyer came to his office with a file indicating Githongo’s father allegedly owed one of the suspects in the Anglo Leasing scam Sh70 million.

The lawyer, he added, asked him to caution Githongo to go slow on the investigation. Murungi claimed Githongo had taken out of context a remark – ‘go slow’ – he made to him during a subsequent meeting.

Carry own cross

Murungi claimed he had been unfairly made to walk around with the backbreaking cross of Anglo Leasing finance scandals. The media, he said, hounded him to the point his children would marvel at the breakfast table if he did pick up the money and where he kept it.

In his dossier Githongo junior alleged during the May 20, 2004, meeting at Murungi’s office, the then Justice Minister “pulled out the file given to him by the lawyer”.

Murungi said he was simply relaying a message from the lawyer. The lawyer had asked him to tell Githongo to “go low” on the issue since it involved one of their clients and his father’s loan would be written off.

BBC World Service aired the conversations on February 8, 2006. “I have listened to the alleged tape recorded evidence. It is truncated, inaudible, insufficient and inadmissible to form any credible proof of the allegations being orchestrated by Mr Githongo,” he claimed at the time.

Murungi, who coined the phrase, “the scandal that never was,’’ now shifts focus to Ringera and Wako, and the question is — who is telling the truth?

Githongo resigned in 2005, amid reports his life had been threatened because of the investigation.

The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office disclosed it had stopped investigation into the Anglo Leasing scam, citing lack of co-operation from Kenyan Government.