Three bank officials who blew the whistle on the Sh18 billion Charterhouse Bank affair have fled the country for fear of their lives.
They have now been given a safe haven in the US, becoming the first Kenyans to seek asylum abroad since President Kibaki came to power.
The three were spirited out of Kenya last month to Tanzania, then flown to Johannesburg in South Africa for safety, it was revealed yesterday.
[SIZE=6]ALSO READ[/SIZE]
[ul]
[li][URL=‘https://nation.africa/kenya/news/british-army-defends-use-of-dangerous-chemical-during-training-in-samburu-4020420’][SIZE=5]British army defends use of dangerous chemical during training[/SIZE][/li]News 39 min ago
https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020424/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/4142ae02d543f366651cb88714a0d79e/jM/batuk.jpg[/URL]
[li][URL=‘https://nation.africa/kenya/news/prepare-for-massive-budget-cuts-on-foreign-travel-ps-nominee-tells-mps-4020960’][SIZE=5]Prepare for budget cuts on foreign travel: PS nominee[/SIZE][/li]News 1 hour ago
https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020964/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/ba624a3540708c453ec8fe1e77dbdd03/HF/pic-ps.jpg[/URL]
[/ul]
![https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020424/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/4142ae02d543f366651cb88714a0d79e/jM/batuk.jpg[/URL]](https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020424/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/4142ae02d543f366651cb88714a0d79e/jM/batuk.jpg%5B/URL%5D){kind=link}
![https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020964/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/ba624a3540708c453ec8fe1e77dbdd03/HF/pic-ps.jpg[/URL]](https://nation.africa/resource/image/4020964/portrait_ratio1x1/70/70/ba624a3540708c453ec8fe1e77dbdd03/HF/pic-ps.jpg%5B/URL%5D){kind=link}
https://nation.africa/resource/image/523924/landscape_ratio2x1/320/160/41dac3808eb0916f8423999a3b5d7f89/Ku/image83595-1.jpg
Before fleeing Kenya, officials believed to be from the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington interviewed all three in their Nairobi hideouts. It was then that a decision was taken to fly them to South Africa where travel documents for the asylum seekers were processed to enable them fly to the US.
[ATTACH=full]478335[/ATTACH]
Mr Kimunya.
Finance minister Amos Kimunya put Charterhouse Bank under statutory management on June 23, this year following claims in Parliament that it was involved in a money laundering and tax evasion scandal that had cost the State Sh18 billion.
The Charterhouse Three who alerted authorities to the scandal were Mr Peter Odhiambo, an auditor with Central Bank, Mr Titus Mwirigi, a consultant with the same bank, and Mr Lameck Ocholla Wagumba, one of the key IT people at Charterhouse Bank who had helped to set up their database.
Mr Mwirigi was allowed to return briefly to Kenya so he could wind up his consultancy and take his family with him to the States via Dar es Salaam, with the help of officials from the US embassy in Tanzania.
The US embassy in Nairobi refused either to confirm or deny the reports. Officials in the public affairs department of the embassy said only that their official response to the inquiries was “No comment.”
Mr Mwirigi and Mr Odhiambo were the first people to raise the Charterhouse affair with Finance minister David Mwiraria and the then governor of the CBK, Dr Andrew Mullei, giving them a detailed briefing when they accompanied Ntonyiri MP Maoka Maore to the minister’s office in 2004.
Mr Mwiraria passed the information to an audit team made up of investigators from the CBK’s banking supervision department, the banking fraud squad and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.
The investigative committee – which included consultant Mwirigi – produced an interim report, in November 2004, which confirmed there had been malpractices at the bank.
Mr Mwirigi gave evidence at the continuing trial of Dr Mullei, who has denied abuse of office charges on matters unconnected with Charterhouse. He told the court his life was in danger, then after he had completed his evidence, he flew out of Kenya to Tanzania. It was during Dr Mullei’s trial, on July 18, this year, that Mr Mwirigi told the court Mr Odhiambo had vanished after he too had received several death threats.
He said before Mr Odhiambo disappeared, he had confided in him that he was being trailed by people claiming to be police officers.
Earlier, on July 7, five plainclothes police officers stormed the Central Bank to arrest Mr Odhiambo but the attempt was thwarted by the acting governor, Mrs Jacinta Mwatela.
They handed the auditor a warrant of arrest and another allowing them to search both his office and his home. But Mr Odhiambo sought the help of his immediate superior who alerted the governor.
Mrs Mwatela summoned the team to her office where, on scrutinizing the warrants, she dismissed them as bogus and accused officials of Charterhouse Bank of attempting to gag both the CBK and the media over the alleged malpractices.
Mrs Mwatela went on to accuse the police of harassing her officials and insisted that the affidavit the police had produced as their evidence for Mr Odhiambo’s arrest could only be authentic and enforceable if it had been signed by the present Charterhouse Bank receiver manager, Ms Rose Detho.
The police move came only a day after names of account holders at the bank were tabled in Parliament by Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow, the shadow Finance minister.
Those named included businessman John Mwau, lawyer Kariuki Muigua, supermarket chain Nakumatt Holdings and other companies including Kingsway Tyres, Pepe Ltd and Harun Holdings.
The police affidavit which was signed by the former Charterhouse managing director, Mr Sanjay Shah, alleged Mr Odhiambo had stolen some vital documents.
Mr Odhiambo worked for Charterhouse Bank until 2004 when he left to join the CBK. At the time, Charterhouse Bank was at the center of investigations led by forensic auditor Melville Smith into its operations and some of its major clients.
After the bank’s closure on June 23, the CBK placed Charterhouse under statutory management until further notice and appointed Ms Detho as manager, shutting out the bank’s directors. Mr Kimunya said the decision was taken to protect customers’ interests.
The opposition’s shadow Finance minister, Mr Billow Kerrow, tabled the documents in Parliament to support his claim that Charterhouse was involved in money laundering and tax evasion.
Mr Kerrow warned MPs that unless the Government took money laundering and tax evasion seriously, it was likely to snowball into a major scandal.
“I am re-tabling these documents to show how serious the issue of money laundering and tax evasion is, yet this Government is treating this issue lightly,” he said.
Mr Kerrow had in June told MPs that Dr Mullei was pushed out of office after he recommended that Charterhouse should be closed.
The CBK now wants Mr Kimunya to take further action on Charterhouse Bank following a new report compiled with the help of the auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers who were contracted by Ms Detho to look further into activities at Charterhouse.
It has written to the minister asking him to cancel the bank’s trading licence, saying its activities, “threaten the stability of the Kenyan economy and the financial market, besides providing incentives and avenues to commit crime.”
The damning report by the CBK was compiled with the help of the auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers who were contracted by Ms Detho to look further into activities at Charterhouse.