Laico Regency owners to be named

By DAVE OPIYO dopiyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, April 11 2011 at 22:00

In Summary

• Revelation will be made by Treasury after MP Mututho sought answers on the matter

The government is on Tuesday expected to lift the lid on who really owns the prestigious five-star Laico Regency Hotel.

The Treasury will reveal the names of the personalities, both in Kenya and abroad, who own the hotel formerly known as the Grand Regency.

The hotel was in 2008 sold to Libyans in a deal clouded in secrecy at Sh2.9 billion, which is about a third of previous estimates of the property’s value.

The government is also expected to disclose who the hotel’s shareholders are as well as the directors of the holding and subsidiary companies.

Laico is the acronym for Libya Arab African Investment Company.

It is one of the many investment vehicles that was being used by besieged Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi to entrench his country’s oil wealth on the continent.

According to Tuesday’s Parliament order paper, Naivasha MP John Mututho will be seeking answers on the matter.

“Could the minister table copies of the due diligence reports, as well as the shareholders and directors as at the time of execution of the sale and confirm or deny that relatives of owners of the former Grand Regency are among the owners of the hotel?” Mr Mututho seeks to know.

Recently, Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara claimed the government sold the hotel to investors in Libya to raise funds for the 2007 General Election.

But the government, through the Finance minister, maintained that the hotel was privately owned initially before the government took control of the hotel after it was put under receivership.

The controversial sale of the hotel was undertaken during the tenure of Mr Amos Kimunya as Finance minister.

The controversy involved the no-bid nature of the sale, the secrecy under which it was negotiated, the identity of the buyers, and the price of the hotel.

Lands minister James Orengo blew the whistle on the sale. However, Mr Kimunya denied any wrongdoing and that the deal was made in secret.

The scam was the first major test of the Grand Coalition Government after the resolution of the 2007-2008 post-election crisis.

A commission of inquiry led by retired Justice Majid Cockar was established to investigate the circumstances surrounding the controversial sale.