President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged Scottish investors to take advantage of the improving business environment in Kenya to invest more in the country and the African continent.
At the same time, the President thanked the investors for the growing number of Scottish businesses in Kenya saying the Kenyan Government was committed to continue supporting their investments to thrive.
President Kenyatta spoke on Wednesday in Edinburgh, Scotland during a business meeting with the Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA). SABA is a membership organisation of Scottish companies with commercial interests in Africa.
During the roundtable meeting hosted by Diageo, one of the world’s top beverage makers and a major investor in East African Breweries (EABL), the President and the Scottish captains of industry explored new investment opportunities in agriculture, water, renewable energy and fisheries among other sectors.
The Scottish business leaders assured President Kenyatta of their commitment to continue supporting Kenya’s socioeconomic transformation through win-win economic partnerships.
Netizens react to William Ruto’s Facebook post on truce with Uhuru Kenyatta
Sunday, October 03, 2021
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto exchange greetings during 18th Annual National Prayer Breakfast at Parliament Buildings on May 27, 2021. Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group
In a Facebook post on his verified page, Dr Ruto copied a letter he had written to the chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde on September 16 indicating his willingness to accept the church to mediate between the two principals.
In the letter, Dr Ruto said: “I want you, the most Reverend Bishop, to know that I’m ready and available to participate without any conditions whatsoever in any forum that you may find necessary to address and resolve these concerns.”
Subukia Shrine
However, speaking during the National Day of Prayer at Subukia Shrine on Saturday, the Catholic Bishops said their invitation to the two principals still stands.
“We made a very strong appeal to our leaders so that we may start forging peace from the top. That invitation still stands and we are still pursuing it. We hope that with the prayers we had today, the invitation would soon become a reality,” said Archbishop Anthony Muheria.
But the Facebook post by the DP with the front page of the Sunday Nation drew mixed reactions from nearly 3,000 followers in Kenya and across the border barely 20 minutes after he posted it.
“I am a Ugandan and I used to like you, but the day I saw you befriending Dictator M7 …that is the day I gave up on you. I can predict if you win the coming elections, Kenyans will suffer,” said Mr Kato Freeman.
Dictatorial instincts
Mr Mark Robin Muchangi posted: “Your dictatorial instincts are demonstrated by your actions and utterances. Kenyans are not ready for a dictator as a president.”
Mr Walter Ke commented: “Be a man of wisdom. You told Kenyans that you’re ready for reconciliation anytime with the president. The next morning you turned against your former friends saying (usidandie serikali yenye hukuunda. Serikali ni ya watu wote. (Don’t enter the government you did not form. The government is for all people). You will rule like a dictator and for this good reason, the Deep State won’t allow you near the State House.”
A United Democratic Alliance (UDA) supporter by the name Nyeri UDA wrote: “There are some things the President (Uhuru Kenyatta) discussed with Raila (Odinga) during the handshake which we don’t know that is why he refused to reconcile with you. But don’t worry, he has only one vote and please stop ignoring these small parties if they are supporting you. After nominations those who will not be satisfied will join other parties.”
CIPK North Rift wants clerics spearheading Uhuru Ruto reconciliation to involve Raila
“Why must you be reunited with the President when you always maintain there is no rift between the two of you? Just pick up your phone and call him. Must the church be brought in to make people talk? The two of you are not children bwana (sir),” wrote Mer Edward Ogacho
Uhuru’s family has Sh3.3 billion in an offshore account – Pandora Papers
Uhuru and six members of his family secretly owned a network of offshore companies.
In Summary
•They have been linked to 11 firms – one of which was valued as holding assets of US$30 million (Sh3.31 billion.
•Uhuru and six members of his family secretly owned a network of offshore companies.
by OLIVER MATHENGEDigital Editor
News
03 October 2021 – 20:05
President Uhuru Kenyatta Image: PSCU
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family has been linked to a freshly released declassification that has exposed how the rich and mighty have stashed billions of shillings in offshore accounts.
Uhuru and six members of his family secretly owned a network of offshore companies, according to records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with more than 600 reporters and media organizations around the world.
They have been linked to 11 firms – one of which was valued as holding assets of US$30 million (Sh3.31 billion).
According to ICIJ, the leaked records listed Uhuru and his mother as beneficiaries of a secretive foundation in Panama.
Other family members, including his brother and two sisters, own five offshore companies with assets worth more than $30 million, the records show, the investigation reveals.
“Kenyatta and his family did not reply to requests for comment,” ICIJ said.
However, ICIJ says that the Kenyatta family began to accumulate much of its offshore wealth before Uhuru became President.
The guardian reported; “In Kenya, the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has portrayed himself as an enemy of corruption.
In 2018, Kenyatta, told the BBC: “Every public servant’s assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and ask: what is legitimate?”
He will come under pressure to explain why he and his close relatives amassed more than $30m of offshore wealth, including property in London. Kenyatta did not respond to enquiries about whether his family wealth was declared to relevant authorities in Kenya.”
The Pandora Papers investigation by ICIJ indicates that the secret documents expose offshore dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries,” ICIJ said.
The investigation indicates that the records – from the Panamanian law firm Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) – show that the Kenyatta family “owned at least seven such entities, two registered anonymously in Panama and five in the British Virgin Islands.”
“One BVI company owned a home in central London, according to the records, and two other companies held investment portfolios worth tens of millions of dollars,” ICIJ says.
The report shows that the accumulation of the wealth in offshore companies dates back to when the late President Moi was still in power.
ICIJ says that in July 2003, the same month that Kenyatta defended Moi in public, records show that a Union Bancaire Privée lawyer, Othmane Naïm, asked Panama offshore specialists to help register a new foundation, to be known as the Varies Foundation.
“The foundation, like a trust, was designed to manage and shelter wealth for its beneficiaries. Draft bylaws, also from July 2003, name the foundation’s beneficiaries: Uhuru Kenyatta and his mother,” the report says.
They further explain that later, records show, Union Bancaire Privée helped manage a foundation for Uhuru’s brother, Muhoho.
“Invoices from Alcogal in Panama to the bank show that the Swiss advisers referred to the Kenyattas with a code: “client 13173.”” ICIJ says in its report.
The secret deals and hidden assets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people have been revealed in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history.
Branded the Pandora papers, the cache includes 11.9m files from companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
They expose the secret offshore affairs of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers and heads of state. They also shine a light on the secret finances of more than 300 other public officials such as government ministers, judges, mayors and military generals in more than 90 countries.
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The files include disclosures about major donors to the Conservative party, raising difficult questions for Boris Johnson as his party meets for its annual conference.
More than 100 billionaires feature in the leaked data, as well as celebrities, rock stars and business leaders. Many use shell companies to hold luxury items such as property and yachts, as well as incognito bank accounts. There is even art ranging from looted Cambodian antiquities to paintings by Picasso and murals by Banksy.
The Pandora papers reveal the inner workings of what is a shadow financial world, providing a rare window into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy that enables some of the world’s richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no tax.
Quick GuideWhat are the Pandora papers?Show
There are emails, memos, incorporation records, share certificates, compliance reports and complex diagrams showing labyrinthine corporate structures. Often, they allow the true owners of opaque shell companies to be identified for the first time.
The files were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington. It shared access to the leaked data with select media partners including the Guardian, BBC Panorama, Le Monde and the Washington Post. More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation.
The Pandora papers represent the latest – and largest in terms of data volume – in a series of major leaks of financial data that have convulsed the offshore world since 2013.
Lamu Couty Politics 
