STEALING ABROAD

Kenyan taxpayers have lost billions of shillings through controversial purchase of properties by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Evidence given Thursday shows the ministry bought the properties, which include houses, in Nigeria, Egypt, Japan and Belgium between 2005 and early this year.

This is after either disregarding valuation estimates by the Lands Ministry or failure to involve experts to justify disbursement of public money from the Treasury.

In one transaction, Kenyan and Japanese vendors used the same Kenyan lawyer in a deal that turned sour midstream.

The property was burnt down after costing Sh1.55 billion although experts from the Lands Ministry had valued it at Sh1.245 billion.

Foreign Affairs official Anthony Muchiri and another from Treasury identified only as Mr Kimemia led the mission to seal the deal for property in Tokyo, last year.

Lands Minister James Orengo says Mrs Teresia Kimondia, an expert valuer from his ministry accompanied them. In her report, Kimondia recommended against buying the old building worth Sh129 million.

The buildings in Cairo, Egypt were bought in October 2005. The ones in Brussels, Belgium were acquired in February 2008.

Around slums

But the properties cannot be developed because of municipal restrictions.

Yesterday, Mr Orengo said the missions in Tokyo, Cairo and Belgium were bought outside "designated diplomatic enclaves," further devaluing their economic worth.

The Brussels property cost 4.5 million Euros and is now worthless because local laws do not permit renovation. "The best we can do with the property in Cairo is to sell it," Orengo told Parliament’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee.

Committee member Omondi Anyanga declared the deals "a monumental swindle of taxpayers money by the Foreign Ministry".

The Cairo plot was acquired in the 1980s for $1.4 million in an undeveloped part of the Egyptian capital and cannot be developed now because slums surround it.

Orengo said valuers from his ministry were not consulted in the identification of all the properties and were only invited towards the end of the procurement to estimate value.

Committee Chairman Adan Keynan said the processes used to buy the properties raise many questions.