Business Daily (Nairobi)
29 June 2008
editorial
Over the past four days, the country has been thrown into yet another high-voltage debate involving the sale of Grand Regency - one of Nairobi's five star hotels - to a Libyan sovereign fund.
Controversy has stalked this sale mainly because of the manner in which it was done and the ultimate price that the buyers are said to have paid.
What has surprised many followers of this latest reality show that is playing on our television screens is the absence of one key character - the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC).
Having been at the centre of this political drama when it started a few months ago - complete with a photo shoot at the entrance of the grand hotel - this latest silence by KACC director Aaron Ringera is unfortunate.
After all, he is the one who is said to have negotiated the settlement that saw the architect of the Goldenberg scheme that is at the centre of the long running crisis, Kamlesh Pattni, hand over the hotel to the State in exchange for his being discharged of the relevant civil cases against him.
The wonder therefore is why Mr Ringera has chosen to take refuge in silence as Finance minister Amos Kimunya and Central Bank governor Njuguna Ndung'u burn in the fire of public outrage.
When it first emerged that the hotel had been sold to Libyans, Mr Kimunya took to the moral high ground - declaring as rumours from the bars any suggestions that the hotel had been quietly sold.
Kimunya's about turn
Less than 24 hours later, the minister made an about turn and confirmed that the hotel had indeed been sold to the Libyans.
Whatever reasons Mr Kimunya may have had for this type of poll vaulting on a matter whose ramifications were only too clear, all it did was to deny him any chance of fair hearing in the court of public opinion.
To be able to take one strong stand on a matter of public interest one day and completely turn your back on it the next day makes it impossible for anybody to believe whatever else he is bound to say on what is clearly set to be a grand debate in the coming months.
This is where we think Mr Ringera's contribution would be most useful.
Information vacuum
Apart from leaving an information vacuum in the public domain that is now being filled by all manner of explanation - real and imaginary - Mr Ringera's silence exposes the organisation he heads and law governing recovery of assets to ridicule.
Mr Pattni's handing over the hotel to the Central Bank of Kenya and the subsequent secret and quick transfer to the Libyans opens Mr Ringera to suspicion that this ground-breaking use of the discharge clause in our anti-corruption laws to recover public assets lost in corruption deals was merely a smoke screen.
That all that Mr Ringera did in this case was to prod Mr Pattni into letting go of an asset for which a small group of highly placed public officials had identified a buyer and agreed on a price.
It also sets a bad precedent as to how the State may want to dispose of future assets recovered from perpetrators of corruption under the discharge clause.
Could the real KACC stand up and clarify the origins of its negotiations with Mr Pattni and the hazy matter of pricing that is at the centre of this uproar?
Since its inception, KACC has earned the dubious distinction of frying the so-called "small fish" while the grand masters of corruption enjoy their ill gotten wealth.
The Grand Regency Hotel sale saga therefore offers the country's chief corruption buster the best opportunity to redeem its image and climb the moral high ground it is supposed to occupy at all times.
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