Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and his family have been exposed in new leaks by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist, Finance Uncovered, Africa Uncensored and others tagged ‘Pandora Papers’.
The papers show the investigative works of more than 600 journalists across the world in several agenciesto reveal the corrupt dealings of many notable current and former world leaders including King Abdullah II of Jordan, Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair and more.
The Kenyatta family, which has largely ruled Kenya in East Africa since independence was found to have offshore investments in 13 companies.
The Pandora Papers – comprising 12 million files is the largest of its kind in the world and is a leak which opens the Pandora boxes of many political leaders and private companies.
Some of Kenyatta’s offshore investments were found to be a company worth $30m, amongst others around the world in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and Panama.
According to the leaks, a company called Varies was established in 2013 specifically to be milked by the family and named Ngina Kenyatta, Uhuru’s mother as the first benefactor and will be inherited by the sitting President after the death of his 88-year old mother.
Majority of the other companies are found in Panama where they never have to seek registration by the Panamanian government and stay there avoiding taxes that come with succession.
President Kenyatta’s government has been fronting its efforts to reduce corruption in the East African giant nation but with recent revelations, there is expected to be great distrust and a huge online backlash by Kenyans.
Pandora Papers also linked the wealth and opulence of the ruling family to the years spent by Jomo Kenyatta in amassing wealth in the country. After his death in 1978, his fourth wife Ngina spread the family’s business interests and enjoyed the patronage of successive Kenyan governments. Ngina and her two daughters, according to the papers set up an offshore company in Panama with the help of lawyers from Switzerland.
One of the properties bought by Ngina Kenyatta in the UK is currently rented by British Parliamentarian, Emma Ann Hardy. The Pandora Papers also revealed the Kenyatta family is still in the business of buying properties in the UK.
What the global investigation by more than 600 journalists from 117 countries however doesn’t reveal is if the family hid state assets in their offshore companies.