Honeymoon over for Okemo, Gichuru in Jersey graft case
IN SUMMARY A BLUNDER by former Attorney-General Amos Wako and differences between his office and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions over who was to extradite billionaire Samuel Gichuru and former Cabinet minister Chris Okemo to the Island of Jersey to face money laundering charges almost let them free, the Nation has learnt. And now Attorney-General Githu Muigai says he will restart the extradition process as ordered by the Court of Appeal, and that, he says, will be his last deed in office. The legal battle staged by Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo to avoid their extradition brought to the fore what appeared to be a battle of supremacy between former DPP Keriako Tobiko — now a Cabinet Secretary — and Prof Muigai. PERSUASION “My argument was that this is a diplomatic issue, and Tobiko insisted that this was his docket,” says Prof Muigai. Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo had all along wanted to persuade the judges to drop the case, and that explains why, seven years after the Island of Jersey asked Kenya to extradite them, they are still in the country. On Friday, the Court of Appeal sided with Prof Githu’s position and gave him the green light to begin extradition proceedings against Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo, thus removing the authority from the DPP’s office who had received the files from Mr Wako, when the DPP office was a department within the AG’s chambers. CRIMINAL “The burden remains with the Attorney-General to deal with the request for extradition in accordance with the law,” the Court of Appeal ruled. When the matter first came to the High Court, Justice Isaac Lenaola, now a Supreme Court judge, sided with Mr Tobiko and argued that extradition was a criminal matter that should be handled by the DPP. KICKBACKS The two are wanted in the self-governing island of Jersey — which one writer described as “half-British, half something else” — where they stashed millions of dollars that, the authorities say, they received as kickbacks from contractors when Mr Gichuru was the managing director of Kenya Power and Mr Okemo was former President Daniel arap Moi’s Finance minister. Mr Gichuru’s offshore company, Windward Trading Ltd, has already pleaded guilty in a Jersey court to crediting £1 million and $2.9 million to its bank accounts on July 29, 1999, knowing the money was from Mr Gichuru’s corrupt dealings. CHEATS The company also pleaded guilty to transferring £449,988 to its bank account on May 12, 2000, and £450,000 on August 15, 2000. Another £599,994 was transferred to its bank account on October 19, 2000. Jersey is one of the British-controlled safehavens that has historically been used by tax cheats and dodgers who open offshore accounts via dummy companies with pseudodirectors.