Hon. Nsereko for Deputy Speaker was flawed from the get-go; we knew the paid NRM MPs would honor their Executive by voting for Hon. Oulanya; and my comments towards the Empty Suits!

Uganda-parliament-2

I am sorry to say this, it’s the spirit of Olara Otunnu that is running through me; the 10th Parliament is running on the same veins as the end of the 9th Parliament. A rigged and well-fueled spirit of the Executive, as the bribes from above high set the standard.

Even Judge Stephen Kavuma, the man behind the decree suspending and abolishing the FDC Party, solemnly swore in Rebecca Kadaga, the loyal bird with feathers for the Executive into Speaker of Parliament, as she speaks and thinks like the Executive. Who knew right?

And you the run for Nsereko is not fair one when the National Resistance Movement even get people like Col. Kulagye to step down for Hon. Oulanyah who has no scruples to gain certain levels of power. As Jacob Oulanyah knows and all who follows knows is that he is elected on ghost votes and not on the local voters as they shunned him.

Hon. Joshua Anywarach wanted to suspend the secret ballot on the Deputy Speaker rally between Oulanyah and Nsereko as then the NRM could check who ate the money fairly and who might not be loyal to the party line under the Executive, though the Speaker Kadaga did not accept that ruling.

That Hon. Oulanyah becoming the Deputy Speaker is not surprising as the money was thrown to the NRM MPs to buy “Suits” and be loyal to the party line, and select the men who the Executive had handpicked for the affair, as he knows that he can control them and their decisions, by throwing pocket-chains while the Executive clears the Bank of Uganda and all other funds for himself. As he keeps the Members of Parliament Ignorant and silence the Opposition… those who don’t believe that ask either FDC or JEEMA about that recently?

Even if Nathan Nandala-Mafabi was a part of the opening of the House and the Parliament, still the Forum for Democratic Change is not in a peaceful place and in a honorable position, while they are either in courts, detained or harassed by the Police Force.

So the news of this today shouldn’t surprise you:

“Only 398 members of 427 MPs have so far registered for the sitting today. Voting delayed as Clerks counter check” (NBS TV Uganda, 19.05.2016).

I am sure 20 of them is either on house-arrest or even detained as we speak, because they surely parts of the few MPs from the FDC that the NRM Regime and their Police Force have silenced as the crackdown on the opposition, that went into high gear in the days running up to the swearing in of Museveni for his seventh term.

NTV Uganda 19.05.2016

“Hon. Rwamirana and UPC’s Hon. Betty Amongin second nomination of Hon. Oulanyah as deputy Speaker of the 10th parliament” (NTV Uganda, 19.05.2016).

While the Uganda People’s Congress, was as expected acting as a NRM branch of token loyalty, something Otunnu 2 years ago spoke about that the NRM had paid several of the leadership to follow Museveni instead of the Party Line, so the historical party have switched from being a one of kind and instead is as loyal to the Executive as the other parts of NRM-O and the NRM CEC. That is sad sight and shows what price the agreement between Hon. Jimmy Akena and his central leadership in the UPC have done with the NRM during the Election. 

Just as the Executive have crashed the opposition, he has also done everything in his power to succumb the Media as he hated the release of the obvious Muhoozi Project that even escalated this week, as he sieged Daily Monitor and shut down the paper for days after a letter was released through the paper and from Gen. Sejusa’s files. People forget that so fast. So yesterday’s announcement should be put into the space:

“President Museveni has appointed former Daily Monitor Managing Editor Don Wanyama as his Presidential Press Secretary replacing Tamale Mirundi” (NBS TV Uganda, 18.05.2016).

Secret Ballot Parliament 19.05.2016

So the Daily Monitor who has been less of an opposition paper and been more in favor of the NRM, shows it’s true face as in the reality they have been shadowed by the regime ever since. So with this in mind, that an opposition like Muhammad Nsereko tries to become Deputy Speaker is flawed, as the UPC and Daily Monitor is not really opposition anymore, you have to fly birds with Chimps Reports. While just let the boggled mind still believe that Andrew Mwenda is think-tank on his own, while sounding the horn of the corruption and his own corrupt mind, that is fitting with the ush. 5M suits of 19th May that gave way to Jacob Oulanyah and his gracious ways.

So my mind went like this while the MPs we’re voting in the Parliament. This is what happen after the secret ballot that even certain MPs was afraid about, since the NRM MPs gotten more money to vote for the candidate that the Executive have decided for them. As Hon. Rebecca Kadaga:  “If everyone has voted I now invite MP Nsereko and MP Oulanyah to nominate atleast 2 agents”.

Deputy Speaker Uganda 19.05.2016

Kadaga and the Parliament are after two hours voting as the Speaker didn’t’ need a vote, since she was unopposed. While the Deputy Speaker between Hon. Oulanyah and Hon. Nsereko. Even as the counting was going on, the Executive wanted to control the voting and tallying as he wants his vision on everything and that has gone stronger with his age, soon he will tell the cooks at the parliament how much bananas they need in the matooki to make it the Western Ugandan way; President Museveni: “I would like to raise a point of order”.

Speaker Kadaga: “No your Excellency. As this happen”.

As they count Daily Monitor recounts the tallying like this:

“CORRECTION: MP’s jeer when Nsereko’s name is read out. Well It is Oulanya, Oulanya, Oulanya and they reply yeeee” (Daily Monitor, 19.05.2016).

Nsereko 19.05.2016

So seems like this set the standard and that Oulanya or Oulanyah is the one to be the deputy speaker in Parliament, as I expected when I woke up this morning and would be the same when I was going back to bed tonight. President, the Executive Museveni had paid the NRM to be his puppets in the house and Parliament and he will continue to pay them to act in his stead in Parliament. It cost to be an empty suit in the Ugandan Parliament first of the verdicts and bought choices of the Executive is 5 Million Shillings and surely give way for Hon. Oulanya.

The results of voting in the Parliament on the Deputy Speaker were this:

Oulanya – 300 Votes,

Nsereko – 115 Votes,

Invalid – 1 Vote.

The one invalid vote must be somebody special, who do you think is the fellow who made the bo-boo in Parliament today?

As the NRM Party wrote seconds after the announcement:

“300 votes cast in favour of Jacob Oulanyah for Dep Speaker of #10thParliament” (NRM Party, 19.05.2016).

Oulanyah 19.05.2016

With this result is there some way that Eng. Badru M. Kiggundu the voting genius can cook this result to a massive result, and make it even more aggressively win in the Parliament, as the Executive believes he should have sanitized the whole of the Parliament.

So my thoughts from this morning was justified, as the Executive had to be there and spread his fear and intimidate the newly selected NRM MPs who doesn’t know his procedures and his rule. In the Parliament in Uganda, you are if you are a NRM Member there, you are a mouthpiece of the President Museveni and not your own mind, just look at Otafiire, did he sound like a wise-man or somebody who thought on his own? The same will be with his new cabinet, where people will work for the Executive, not for the grand state or the progress of Uganda, but to centralize the Power amongst the Executive, nothing else, and the Opposition who is there, is so that he can pin-point at them and smile to the Donors, “We have sort of Multi-Party Democracy, but they got no party in decisions, but they are there, remember give me and my Government money!”.

Enough of the nonsense at Parliament while Dr. Kizza Besigye ferment in Luzira, and is charged with treason, while the Opposition is harassed and treated as criminals, because they stand-up against the Executive and does not follow his mission, sorry vision. To the Executives way to gain wealth for himself and his family that he has worked on over time. Still, I will leave with the statement from the FDC Secretary Harold Kaija as he was freed today after days on days in SID Kireka. Take a look!

Harold Kaija

Harold Kaija’s statement after being released from SID Kirek Prison:

“FREE AT LAST

I want to thank all that stood with me when the Dictator jailed me for 9 days at SID Kireeka for defying Justice Kavuma’s order!

In the Kireeka cells I found Ariho Sam well known in the FDC circles at MUK. He is charged with treason. He inserted my name and that of Michael Kabaziguruka in his statement as one of the people he consulted while starting his activities. I asked him why, he told me he had been beaten. I find this strange!! The truth is that I had not seen him for 7 years. He called me one day and u invited him to office. I told him that our party was only involved in Non Violence Actions.

I want to thank my Brother Hon. Nathan Nandala-Mafabi I made a One Man Protest at the SID offices until I was released yday. He asked to be jailed with me if they didn’t allow him to go with me.

From what we gathered, all FDC cases, the IGP has the final case.

I can’t forget those who didn’t fear to come to Kireeka to visit me. Hon. Mwiru Paul, Hon. Adeke Anna Ebaju, and her sister, Hon. Wafula Oguttu, Hon. Ibrahim Nganda Ssemujju, Dr. Odwer, Senior Counsel Rwakafuzi.

Activists Kigongo Ayub, Fred W Mutibwa, Ayub, Kalule Sam, Namutebi, Richard Nyombi Byemalo, Musitwa, the NRM Poor Youth,

My family David, Ruth and Edna.

I also want to thank the Social Media Activists for demanding for my release that one day the Kireeka leadership had to come to my cell at mid night to find out if I was keeping my phone. There was Punic allover the place for two days.

Lastly I thank Ingrid Turinawe and Doreen for the mobilisation.

What I can authoritatively tell u is that we have a lot of support in the forces” (Harold Kajja, 19.05.2016).

That’s enough for now. Peace.

NRM MPs Get 5M to Buy Suits (Youtube-clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7rxYaKRzeA

The ruling NRM legislators in the 10th Parliament have each received sh5 million from President Yoweri Museveni to help them buy suits and organize small parties for their supporters after swearing in. Also from Parliament, legislators are expected to meet tomorrow to elect a new Speaker and Deputy Speaker to steer the country’s 10thHouse. Whereas the incumbent Speaker Rebecca Kadaga is poised to retain her seat, the race for the Deputy Speaker is wide open, with two of the three candidates all having equal chances” (NTV Uganda, 2016)

#SafaricomKPMGScandal: My 2 cents and a chapatti of wandering through the actions of the company who tries to silence the Scandal and the leaked information to the Public!

kenya-press_2721233b

There we’re a KPMG Audit leak of the Safaricom Telecom Company in Kenya, which was released through a blogger called Cyprian.  He found and released article relating to a Draft Report, that he in the latest twist released on Twitter. Why I comment on it, after even releasing it. It is to brighten the days of the corruption hunters and pundits. To prove that not all writers can be bought. You feel me right? Why I say that because money talks, everybody knows that right?

SMS to Cyprian

While this report circulated and even some findings came to the limelight, CEO Bob Collymore we’re able to dodge the release as the blogger had to take down his article and later even send the Blogger direct text message. The blogger got now after this text messages from Red Cross and Inter Religious Council of Kenya. And he have nothing to do with this organizations before, so there are something up with the Safaricom model of the moment.

The Safaricom CEO continues with suspect behavior as even reports of entering Kenyan Media-houses with Police Officers following his tail. When he, the CEO of Safaricom Bob Collymore where he initially threaten them. If they did exposes the maladministration of the company into the society and into the public sphere through the media.

The marked interest for this company is the structure and its importance in Kenya. The Government of Kenya owns 60% of it and the rest is owned by Vodafone, which means 40% of it is in the private interest. The Markie exposure of the company is not only how much having been squash the Audit that we’re unfortunately released, but by what extent the leadership have gone to silence it.

And when a business, a company and their leaders get orders from the “mother-company” to shut the noise, when they order media-houses and threaten them with the Police Officers holding the hands of the CEO; then you know that there are shady people eating the cakes that was not intended to. The Safariacom have even ordered an advertisement operation with ScanGroup for Ksh. 2.1bn and that proves to what extent they goes to bury the legality of the KPMG audit.

Collymore 2016

The Public Petition of Michael Ngugi that states this:

“That it is unfortunate though that Safaricom is in itself a corrupt institution and as evidenced by the forensic audit report from KPGM which examines the period of September 2013 to August 2015. Copy Enclosed. In this report many instances of malpractices have been cited in regards to tender processes, award and general shortcomings of ethical practice and governance as far as supplier selection and management are concerned” (…)”THAT, Safaricom in contravention of their own Procurement  policy as enshrined in their Policies and Procedure manual and use it only selectively to suit selfish interests of some senior staff who collude to defraud the company and deny well deserving Kenyan companies a chance to offer services even after satisfying all the necessary requirements in a tender and emerging victorious. This is an act of impunity and no one in Kenya is above the law, justice must therefore be pursued for the victims for this scheme” (..,)”That I confirm that I am aware that it is not possible to raise any issue regarding Safaricom with any organ, institution or media because Safaricom has corruptly infiltrated all segments of society and used its corporate advising might and huge financial resources to oppress any dissent or complaints”.

Keter Citizen TV

There even been more implications between the Media Houses and the Bob Collymore scandal of the KPMG reports as central men in the media have been bribed to silence or not talk about the company in an unfavorable way, these men are for instance Tom Mshindi (Nation Media Group) and Linus Kaiaki (NTV Kenya). So there are many big fishes who are being fried and more to come as the information getting leaked. These men are not alone, as Safaricom even bribed Citizen TV Kenya, who got Ksh. 50m to not highlight the report on the TV screen on the 9th May of 2016.

As an example of the leaked information that Safaricom wants to silence is the M-Pesa Second Generation agreement we’re the report stated this:

“Safaricom partnered with Huawei to upgrade its M-Pesa mobile money payments system, a decision which we were driven by Michael Joseph (Joseph) the previous Chief Executive Officer. We were informed by Donald Twesiga, the former Head of IT Service Operations (Twesiga) that a procurement process had been initiated which included major international vendors, but Joseph singlehandedly settled on Huawei. We were further informed that although the cost of this project was borne largely by Safaricom, it does not retain exclusive use of intellectual property on the project and similar mobile money projects can be rolled out in other territories without any benefits to Safaricom. We were also informed that there was no evidence of negotiation of prices on this project between Safaricom and Huawei”.

Safaricom 4G Ad

When you have agreements like this and there are nobody earning on it, directly the Safaricom company doesn’t earn on an upgrade, but still does it, without even negotiation of prices or have followed procedure of procurement process, it sends signals of direct corruption between the men who has been behind the agreement between Safaricom and Huwei, that can be the case as the levels of transparent procurement for the company and their rules for doing so. That should be even more important by a significant company of this size; the level of government ownership and the state of importance the M-Pesa mobile money have in Kenya alone. Just when you thought M-Pesa was dirty enough, even Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have reported in recent days that the profits made through M-Pesa mobile money have gone direct to a Tax-Haven so that the Kenyan Government can’t earn the direct tax money on the revenue. Another way of securing higher yields of profits for the CEO and the board, also second owner of the Company Vodafone!

That the CEO of Safaricom Bob Collymore have denied and claimed that the reports is lies, is expected; a man who is earning so much and have such treasures would not jump on the sword, as he is used to tool with government entities and media as they are waiting for the money and for the services rendered by the Safaricom. With the knowledge of the monies that Safaricom can bring Media-Houses and needed Ad-Revenue, Aga Khan of the Nation Media Group (NMG) would easily be corrupt; that has been showed in the Ugandan General Election period where he was donated land to publish a positive poll in the same manner as the one was delivered towards the 2011 election there. So if Safaricom can come with good money than they surely can silence the media for their cause.

Cyprian Blogger

And as there was a blogger who got the hunch of the report and dropped certain knowledge of what it did say, the Safaricom could use the media they are paying high salaries to and gives lots of advertisement revenue.  

Just to give you an indication on the value of money there earned inside the board of Safaricom, CEO Bob Collymore earned in the last 12 months, the net amount of Ksh. 109.5. So it’s a well-paid position and he has earned a living salary and surely could afford to pay of somebody just with his salary alone. Though I am sure the company coffers have enough to do and to silence the ones that need to be.

As much it is not only the Huawei and Safricom deal that is questionable when comes to Procurement procedure, you have also this one.

M Pesa Started

“In relation to the Fibre Space partnership dated 10th April 2015, the following documents were not provided;

  1. Invoices and payments to card manufacturers in relation to Safaricom purchased cards and purchase orders.
  2. Actual payment patterns with supporting payment documentation.
  3. A documented breakdown of the aggregate revenues to date Safaricom has earned from the partnership and;
  4. Information on the distribution count and location of all the points of sale and cards by Safaricom in relation to the partnership.
  5. A velocity report from the CMS indicating the time taken at each stage of contract drafting was not provided for review.
  6. The CBS reconciliations done by the Credit Control together with the resulting payable refunds for the month of July 2015 provided for review was no approved by HOD credit control” (thaVibe.com, 12.05.2016).

So again you see shade agreement between the Safaricom and co-partnership with Fibre Space. This again shows the agreement done without due diligence or even a review, henceforth done directly instead of through the procurement agreement. This does not say who did what, but certainly something suspicious.

Collymore Profile 2016

That Bob Collymore have to enter a Media House with Police Officers to silence them and think that this can go away, pay for Blogger Awards while the Report is circulating, even I got the papers, and I am miles away from shores and streets of Nairobi. I know the boats are in Mombasa, still the point is that I, far away can get them and paste them on my blog. So the old fashion fear driven policy of Collymore doesn’t work in the digital age. The exposed stays exposed. That is why Wikileaks and Panamapapers can do as they please.

So Safaricom has showed its face is not accountable, transparent or just in their actions as their procurement and agreements are made for the beneficiaries and not after procedure. This is just the ones that have surfaced through the reported pages from the draft report. What more that are under surface is something only Collymore and the rest of Board of Safaricom knows. The Company and owners of Vodafone only knows the whole picture, as the Government also is connected and the ability to silence the media as the Ad Revenue counter the Integrity of the set amount of journalist or editors ethical behavior. Peace.

#SafaricomKPMGScandal: Pages from the Draft report in question of 18th February 2016

KPMG Safari FP 2016

KPMG Safari P1 2016

KPMG Safari P2 2016

KPMG Safari P3 2016

KPMG Safari P4 2016

KPMG Safari P5 2016

KPMG Safari P6 2016

KPMG Safari P7 2016

KPMG Safari P8 2016

KPMG Safari P9 2016

How the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) of Kenya ordered Electoral Material and by doing so; the IIEC Officials secured themselves on Government funds applied for Electoral Materials!

Hassan Issack

The main issue is that there are this printing company named Smith & Ouzman (S&O) Limited, who was hired to work for Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) in Kenya. They have had a shady agreement between the Government Organization of the IIEC with certain individuals inside the S&O who made the deals and contracts that will be explained.

This is taken from the Court Document from the Crown Court a.k.a. Southwark Court in London, and the court case this information is taken from is the “Regina V. Christopher Smith, Nicholas Smith, Timothy Forrester, Abdirahman Omar and Smith and Ouzman Limited”. The Southwark Court Note that we’re made by Mark Bryant-Heron and Trevor Archer on the 30th September 2014, and where this information comes from and says how the embezzlement, fraud and corrupt Kenyan Officials used the IIEC to gain profits for themselves. Take a look!

IIEC_voting_procedure_Kenya

Corrupt Officials and how the agreement happens:

“This included obtaining printed materials for those elections e.g. ballot papers. The count alleges agreement between the defendants and the agent, Trevy James Oyombra in the case of count 1, to make corrupt payments in relation to the award of and payment for contracts to print materials” (…)“A legitimate business transaction using an agent. The agent is retained by the supplier under a contract to use his best efforts on behalf of the supplier in the country the agent is operating in. Negotiations between the supplier and the customer will often include the agent who is there and can speak to employees of the customer. As a result of successful negotiations a contract (agreement) is reached between supplier and customer for the supply of goods which are duly shipped over and the customer is invoiced by the supplier. The customer pays the invoice amount and the supplier pays the agent his fee, which is usually a commission payment in this case.”

So you have the Agent Trevy James Oyombra of IIEC who made the agreement with S&O in order for IIEC to get the material and at the same to fix the invoice so they could corrupt own employees and embezzlement. This here was managed that way. As told here:

“The customer pays for that supply of goods in the normal way, but there is an additional payment to the corrupt official in accordance with the corrupt agreement between the supplier and that official. A corrupt payment in advance of delivery of the goods may properly be described as an inducement. A corrupt payment after delivery may properly be described as a reward. Both an inducement and a reward for showing favour to S&O fall within the definition of the alleged offences in this case”.

As it continues to describe like this:

“The dealings of S&O with the Independent Interim Electoral Commission in Kenya. The defendants charged with this offence are Christopher Smith, Nicholas Smith and the company, S&O. Their agent in Kenya was Trevy James Oyombra (“Trevy”). He was a party to the agreement to commit this offence and bribe officials. He was appointed by S&O as their agent on 5/10/08”.

How they did it:

“The defendants and the agent Trevy James Oyombra (known as Trevy) agreed to bribe a number of officials at the IIEC”.

How long we’re the tenders lasting:

“The defendants are Christopher Smith, Nicholas Smith and S&O. The agent in Kenya was, again, Trevy. There were three agreements for S&O to supply materials to the KNEC. The tender for the first of these contracts was submitted by S&O in September 2009 and the final payment by KNEC to S&O was made in November 2010”.

The value of the contracts between the S&O and the IIEC:

“The value of the seven contracts was £1,377,257. S&O received ten payments from the IIEC from 22/9/09 to 8/12/10 in the total sum of £1,366,976. From that sum S&O retained £980,834. £380,859 was paid to Trevy’s bank account. Of that sum the prosecution say that it was agreed between the defendants and the agent Trevy that £337,993 was to be paid on by Trevy in bribes to the IIEC officials”.

Chicken IIEC

Direct Payment to IIEC Officials:

“The payments received by S&O from the KNEC for supplying these examination materials was £282,339. The sterling equivalent of £9,604 was paid to the agent Trevy. It was agreed that he was to pay on the sterling equivalent of £2,803 ($4,000) to officials. In addition S&O paid £5,200 directly to two officials, Paul Wasanga and Ephraim Wanderi”.

So know we see the Trevy James Oyombra to able to fix the contract deals money directly to Paul Wasanga and Ephraim Wanderi in the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya, so that they could have tenders and agreements between S&O and the IIEC. So they would have the election material from them. This was the £5,200 to the men of the IIEC officials, which is a corrupt direct deal together with the £980,000 that was in the agreement payment to S&OThe IIEC got the rest and went officially to Trevy, but after that we’re directed to the Officials of the IIEC so the £380,000. So they had an agreement that £390,400 in bribes in between the agent, S&O and the IIEC.

By Election

A timeline for some of the transactions:

Contract 1: Shinyalu and Bomachoge By-Election

“On the 16th June 2009, Nicholas Smith wrote to the IIEC chairman, Ahmed Issack Hassan [Ex AFM 0293]. The letter referred to a meeting between S&O and Hassan at IIEC’s offices in Nairobi and quotes for printing voter registration forms, voter ID cards and ballot papers for the urgent Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-election. The price quoted was £32,526. The 200,000 voter ID cards and 20,000 voter registration (“OMR”) forms were quickly produced by S&O and delivered on 27/6/09” (…)”On 29/6/09 Nick Smith sent Trevy the “attached calculation of payment for the by election requirements”, adding that Trevy had been allotted £750 for his efforts. [AFM 0292]. Trevy replied by email on the same date 29/6/09, asking for his £750 to be increased to £1,000. Nicholas Smith replied the following day, 30/6/09, saying he had just texted Trevy and attaching what he described as the accurate figures” (…)”The remainder off that contract price is divided up between funds from the contract for S&O: £21,950 and a sum of £10,576 for “comm”. Comm, the prosecution suggest is short for “commission”. The email traffic makes clear who this “comm” is for. In the email of 29/6/09, which Nicholas Smith replied to, Trevy made it clear that it was necessary to distribute this sum covertly by sending it to Trevy’s account” (…)”Wiring to Trevy’s account would avoid suspicions according to Trevy and, Trevy informed Nicholas Smith, Karani had been in communication with the seven other members of the committee about this. He added that they (IIEC officials) had been informed that “this would be done” [i.e. payment made to the officials] after S&O received their money. In a further email from Trevy the following day, 30/6/09” (…)”On 4/8/09, Trevy e mailed Nicholas Smith: [AFM 0261]: “i had a meeting i the morning and assured mr. karani and es team that once you are paid that’s when you will send over something and karani got it clear from you at the hilton that this will be done on payment. once that has been done i told em we shall all go to my bank and ill give the chicken to karani although karani hasnt told em how much it is but that’s their business. i think all this came about since they are anxious and very broke.” (…)”In the event S&O shipped 142,350 ballot papers. Nicholas Smith knew about this and gave instruction to his staff to leave the quantity off the shipping invoice” (…)”Nick Smith contacted Trevy about this and Trevy advised Nicholas Smith to let Karani know that the number of ballot papers actually needed was less than 200,000. Trevy stated that he was having breakfast with Karani and others and that payment would be made on the contract as agreed” (…)”The invoice included a price of Ksh 11.52 per ballot paper. This reflected Trevy’s observation in his emails of 30/6/09, where Trevy stated that the commission for the voter forms was just for “the iiec guyz” and that the reason for increasing the price of the ballot papers from 9Ksh to 11Ksh was to pay Trevy his commission” (…)”The total commission figure was shown as £11,236. This reflected the payments to the IIEC officials and the £1,000 for Trevy, less a payment of £250 which had been made by S&O on 11/8/09” (…)”The following day, 25/9/09 S&O sent a payment of £11,576 to Trevy” (…)”Nicholas Smith then emailed Trevy: “Karani has been in touch saying he hasn’t heard from you. I guess he is after chicken. Please confirm all is distributed.”.

Here you can see how the S&O facilitated the bribes to the IIEC as they got the contract for the Shinyalu and Bomachoge By-Election, the amount of bribes are staggering and proves how the Electoral Commission Officials ate from the top to give the Contract to the S&O. The agent facilitated it all as using the Commission on the Agreement as the bribes to the Officials and using “Chickens” to explain the values of bribes and if they we’re paid the officials.

IIEC Electoral Material

Contract 2: 2009-2010 Voter ID forms.

“S&O secured a contract with IIEC to produce 18 million voter registration cards. The value of the contract was £278,838” (…)”On 30/12/09 Trevy emailed Nicholas Smith enclosing the details of other companies who had tendered, saying “have a scrutiny of these bidders and let’s talk after.” [AFM 0254] Trevy emailed Nicholas Smith again on the same day, 30/12/09, [AFM 0253] saying that “when it comes to handling these guys (chicken) I would prefer that if dena or karani or anyone tries to come directly to you please stik to your guns and let them come and discuss non official issues with me and tha involves chicken” (…)”The entries for ‘commission’ come to a total of £88,840. It is worth noting that after deducting the cost of the commission payments, airfreight and the cost of subcontracting the production of half of the forms, S&O only kept £96,579, out of which they had to pay the costs of producing half the forms” (…)”The pricing summary has the following entries “Comm K” £69,840, “Comm D + com” £6,000, “Comm O + H” £3,000 and “Comm T” £10,000. This summary therefore divides up the commission payments. 4 days after S&O wrote accepting the contract, Trevy emailed Nicholas Smith on 4/2/10, stating that “Dena and Chirchir will be in London and would like to meet you on Monday.” He stated they “were looking for a figure of 10 million ksh for emself, commissioners and others.” He advised Nicholas Smith to let them know the commission the “board have decided was 6000 pounds as we’ve earlier discussed to everyon without saying names…..dont mention uve met kebs or oswago or hamida.” Trevy went on to state that “these commissioners are seriously fronting and I know they are with punchlines….they want to reap where they do not sow.” (…)”The total amount demanded in bribes (“For emself, commissioners and others”) of 10 million ksh (Kenyan shillings) in Feb 2010 was worth £79,000. This comprises the three commission figures other than “Comm T”. “Comm K” of £69,840 is likely to be either a reference to KEBS, the Kenyan Bureau of Standards, referred to in Trevy’s email, or is possible a reference to Karani. “Comm D + com” of £6,000 is consistent with a reference to Dena and the commissioners and reflects the £6,000 mentioned in Trevy’s email. “Comm O + H” of £3,000 is consistent with a reference to Oswago, the IIEC Chief Electoral Officer, and Hamida, an individual connected to Oswago. Finally “Comm T” of £10,000 refers to Trevy’s commission. The bribes figure (removing Trevy’s commission) is a sterling figure of £78,840 which is close to the sterling equivalent of the 10 million ksh referred to by Trevy in his email” (…)”On 2/6/10 Nicholas Smith instructed S&O’s account department [AFM 0226] to pay to Trevy the balance of £44,420, which was included in a larger sum of £121,676.64 (the balance of which related to contract 3 below) which was paid to Trevy by S&O that day. [AFM 0013] The payment had been preceded by requests from Trevy for payment. On 1/6/10 Trevy emailed Nicholas Smith, chasing the chicken: “ive spoken to the ceo on delivery of forms and he will get back to me tomorrow. hes so happy iv mentioned that chicken will be with me on Friday or saturday. i hope you will be able to make the debit transactions to me today to facilitate me to have the payments done to them by saturday latest.” [AFM 0226] Nicholas Smith, apparently unsurprised by the confirmation that bribes were to be paid, replied “Our Finance Director isn’t in today so we can’t get this payment out today, but I will ensure it is made tomorrow.” The following day Nicholas Smith instructed that the balance to Trevy be paid”.

Another contract between the S&O to the IIEC Officials through the agents that used there terms to bribe them for the agreement. The bribe was in the range of £88,840 plus the agreed payment to the agents for facilitating it as the IIEC and S&O wanted all to earn money on the state coffers. The share value and price shows how much higher the price of the products becomes with the bribes, as the production cost the same as the bribes, so the price for production become the double and without would have been about half. That together with the commission and direct commission, together with the initial commission is the ones that make the production and procurement of the electoral material expensive in this matter!

IIEC Ballot Box

Contract 3: Referendum Ballot Papers.

“This was a substantial contract to supply approximately 14.6 million ballot papers and associated forms for a Referendum. The items were dispatched in July 2010. The total contract value was £431,161.15. Trevy’s fee for this contract was £11,872.05” (…)”The prosecution case is that bribes intended for officials at the IIEC and the Kenyan Bureau of Standards (“KEBS”) totalled £108,203.82, which was reduced to £105,193.82 to take account of “hotel” costs paid by S&O during a 3-4 day visit of IIEC officials to S&O’s factory on 14th July 20103” (…)”Trevy was upbeat about S&O’s prospects of landing this lucrative contract. He reported that S&O were popular by this time with the IIEC because of previous corrupt payments which had by this time been paid or were agreed and awaiting payment and because S&O managed to combine the corrupt payments with reliable quality of product” (…)”Trevy explained that the officials wanted to take the opportunity while they were at the IIEC to make money: “Please also be advised that these guys are also here to make money […] These people are only in IIEC till the end of the year so they are after making money and they will play game with whoever puts what they want. They’ve reiterated that its better to make money with us coz we don’t compromise on quality but at the same time they want to make money”. Trevy added that he had spoken to the CEO (Chief Electoral Officer, Oswago) on the telephone and he explained how a figure of KSh 0.92 (as part of the bid price) was split between bribes for public officials at the KEBS, commissioners at the IIEC, Oswago and Dena. Trevy stated that Oswago told him he did not want to work with one of S&O’s competitors” (…)”By contrast, Oswago had assured Trevy that he would continue to work with S&O, who had paid him bribes in the past and would continue to pay him bribes in the future: “He believes in S&O and that’s what is important and we’ve given him money for the voters card and after payment for balance and pouches we are set to give him Gbp 21000 that Kshs 2,100,000. So he knows we can deliver both materially and money and I think this good will is important” (…)”Trevy went on to discuss the level of bribes for officials at KEBS, which, at KSh 0.20 per ballot paper was lower than that proposed by the officials at IIEC (KSh 0.20 per ballot paper) and Trevy’s own fee (KSh 0.10 per ballot paper), which would all be added to S&O’s price: “KEBS [Kenyan Bureau of Standards] are key guys so lets shelve theirs to Ksh 0. 20 this and any other person who will be in the technical committee. I was of getting Ksh 0.10. This makes a total commission of Kshs 0.85 to be loaded to your price” (…)”On 12th May 2010, S&O produced their bid submission for the tender. The prices had been converted into Sterling. The total price for 18 million ballot papers was £448,200” (…)”Trevy then went on to report that the IIEC would pay S&O in advance for the Referendum ballot papers because it suited them to pay before the close of their financial year: “IIEC will pay us in advance for referendum ballot papers because of the close of financial year in June.” (…)”if S&O received an advance payment, they would pay immediately: “If it is a straight advance payment then of course we are happy, and the chickens will fly straight away”. (i.e. the bribes would be paid straight away)” (…)”On 7th June 2010, Nick Smith informed Trevy that S&O wanted to start printing the Referendum ballot papers on Monday 14th June in order to deliver them by 10th July [AFM 0224]. Four batches of Referendum ballot papers (totalling 14.51 million ballot papers) were dispatched between 20th June and 28th July 2010. The shipping invoices show the total value of those papers was £361,299.01. [AFM 0218, AFM 0217, AFM 0199 and AFM 0203]. The specific value for the last 10,000 ballot papers invoiced the IIEC £3,977.19 for a further 121,900 ballot papers and associated forms” (…)”On 14th July 2010, S&O hosted a 3-4 day visit from five officials from the IIEC, namely Hassan, Nyaundi, Oswago, Tororey and Sang [AFM 0172]. Nick Smith directed other staff to make arrangements for this visit, which included booking hotel accommodation for the officials. Hotel costs of £3,010 were later deducted from the bribes paid to the officials, which appear to relate to this visit” (…)”Trevy and Nick Smith agreed to invoice the IIEC for £7,550 for these papers. Trevy reported that he had told the IIEC the cost would be between “5 – 8 thousand pounds”. Nick Smith then suggested the invoice be made out for £7,400 to “subsidise the hassle-factor for the packing lists as there is a lot of time being spent on this” [AFM 0216]. The eventual invoice gave a price of £7,550 [AFM 0309]. Nick Smith told Trevy “I have included the usual commission in this, plus some extra special Trevy consultancy fee…” (…)”S&O made the payments on 25th August and 7th October 2010, sending Trevy payments totalling £172,837.27. The prosecution case that this included £117,065.87 to cover Trevy’s fee (£11,872.05) and the bribes to be distributed to officials in respect of this contract (£108,203.82 minus £3,010 “hotel” costs)”.

Chicken Gate

This here is not the whole of cases in the note or the whole picture; this is just a show off the viable transaction from the IIEC to their hired company to produce the needed electoral material or ballots through the Smith & Ouzman (S&O). They did this with a set-up through an agent Trevy who fixed the agreement between the IIEC, KEBS and other direct officials. This have been put on the top of the needed monies for the contract either as “chickens” or “commission” has been showed in the document and to the London Court.

This here was a collaborate approach as the company earned money on dealing this way with the IIEC and the Kenyans and continued getting contracts; not condemning the corrupt behavior, but even Trevy at one point felt the IIEC Officials was this on the 4th February 2010: “these commissioners are seriously fronting and I know they are with punchlines…. they want to reap where they do not sow.”

Even the Agent who facilitated the government officials and let them go with their corrupt behavior and securing them government funds to embezzle through fake invoices and with add-ons that was going to the Officials and not to the Company that sold the material. Even he was angered that they we’re eating without working for what they are sowing. This proves a certain mentality amongst the IIEC that they wanted it this way and wanted “commission” for the buy of government procurement. It was because with these arrangements the Officials got money and the Company made sure they could eat well on the monies spent by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) on Electoral Material to the elections held by the commission. This proves that the need for strong procedure and oversight by ombudsmen to stop this kind of embezzlement and fraud of the government funds. So that the money actually just goes to the Electoral Material, and not as extra fried chickens eaten by the Officials!

That is enough for today. Peace.

Bokomosa – Zuma’s Day in Court: Better late than Never!

“This week, DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, discusses President Zuma’s spy tapes case” (Democratic Alliance, 2016)

EFF Forcefully Removed From Parliament AGAIN! (Youtube-Clip)

“Chaos in Parliament again. Debate on Vote 1: “Presidency”. The EFF rejects Jacob Zuma the right to deliver his speech and are forcibly removed by Police” (My Africa, 2016)

This is why Kenya is still a “man eat man society.” Words of President Nyerere (Youtube-Clip)

Kenya Ghost Money 1.0

When FIFA’s Blatter commends somebodies development you should look into it; as the President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has a son in Teodorin who loves the luxurious life in Los Angeles, as the paperwork shows!

Equatorial Guinea CAF Cup Blatter

“This is the first time I have been to your country but it will definitely not be the last. You have so many development projects going on that I will almost certainly have to come back,” Blatter said” (Embassy of Equatorial Guinea, 2010).

When Sepp Blatter have seen development he have seen some brown-envelopes and adjustments made for the FIFA organizations and the other football bodies that have helped enrichen that organization and not develop the country that FIFA is in. If it was so then the stadiums of Brazil would be used for something else than a Bus-Park. But this here is not about the use of FIFA, but his visit surely gives the prospect of how the society is. As this country I will be focused on have had a tightknit organization built around the Executive and the Party he is running.

TheodoreObiang1

“Cabinet Ministers and public servants in Equatorial Guinea are by the law allowed to owe [sic] companies that , in consortium with a foreign company, can bid the government contracts  and should the company be successful, then what percentage of the total cost of the contract the company gets, will depend on the terms negotiated between the parties. But, in any event, it means that a cabinet minister ends up with a sizeable part of the contract price in his bank account” – Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue

I will today show a little levels of corruption from the grand-family of the longest staying President on the African Continent per today. This President have just recently won yet another election with over 90% and secured a new term in the country he has run since a coup d’état in 1979. About the way President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasongo, who have filtered the oil-rich monies to himself and family over the years and used government funds on expensive things for himself or his son Teodorin Obiang who at some point even dated the American rapper EVE. But, hey take a look!

“According to the documents from the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Teodorin, who earns a few thousand dollars a month as a minister in his father’s government, transferred about $75 million into U.S. banks between 2005 and 2007, via wire transfers processed by Bank of America, Wachovia, UBS, Union Bank of California and First American Trust” (Global Witness, 2009).

Obiang

In 2011 this was the official salary of Teodorin Obiang as Ministry of Forestry:

“His official salary today is approximately $6,799 per month, or less than $100,000 per year, according to the official E.G. sources” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).

This is just the beginning and shows to what extent that Equatorial Guinean President and his son have bought with the government funds. This is money earned through the exporting crude-oil and the dividends from it. The Government gets the earnings with the ELF contracts for instance. So there is money to spend of the President as the oil-money could be used for personal affairs it seems. Not that it is justified and therefore it has even cause controversy in the United States as his son are leaving in Los Angeles.

Obiang Cars

What spending had Teodorin Obiang done in Los Angeles:

“The Defendants in rem, obtained through the abuse of public office and illegally laundered through the abuse of financial institutions and businesses in the United States, are believed to be currently located within the Central District of California” (…)”The Defendants White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and miscellaneous other Michael Jackson memorabilia” (…)” These items are believed to be located at the defendant real property located on Sweetwater, Mesa Road, California” (…)”The Defendant, 2011 Ferrari is described as followed: One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO” (…)”The defendant 2011 Ferrari is titled in the name of Teodoro Nguema Obiang and is believed to be located at the Sweetwater property” (…)”The 2004 PSI Report revealed that, from at least 1995 to 2004, the Government of E.G. directed that payments from the oil companies be made into accounts at Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C. According to the PSI Report, aggregate deposits to E.G. Government accounts totaled hundreds of millions dollars at a time and were so large that by 2003, the E.G. portfolio had become the bank’s largest single costumer relationship, with balances and outstanding loans that together approached $700 million. The PSI Report concluded that Riggs Bank “turned a blind eye to evidence (,) suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption” (…)”In March 2001, Nguema bought a new 2001 Bentley automobile in Beverly Hills, California, paying for it with a personal check for $360,000, drawn on his Riggs Bank account. A few months later, he brought a second 2001 Bentley, from the same dealership in Beverly Hills, for which he paid $57,500 in cash and $228,000 by personal check drawn on the same account. In 2001, at the age of 33, he also bought a $6,5 million house on the Antelo Road in Bel Air” (…)”For example, he spent millions of dollars to buy dozens of sports cars and luxury vehicles. These included, amongst others, 24 cars with a total declared value of $9.68 million that he stored at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angles until November 2010, when he shipped them, along with $400,000 worth of motorcycles, to France. These cars included a $ 2 million Maserati, two Bugatti Veyron sports cars for which he paid $ 2 million Maserati and $ 1.3 million respectively, eight Ferraris (including the defendant 2011 Ferrari), seven Rolls Royces, five Bentleys, four Mercedes, A Porsche, two Lamborghinis, and an Aston Martin” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).

Here I have just showed how much monies have been moved to a Bank Accounts over a Period which is in the amount of 700 Million Dollars and can only be seen as grand amount of monies taken from Equatorial Guinea to be used for personal affairs in United States. As we later see the amounts spent on cars and the sophisticated cars and size of the car park that is filled with Bentleys, Ferraris, Aston Martin, Bugatti Veyron, Rolls Roycs and even a Maserati. That shows the level of spending and the ignorant value of the government funds, as spending on a crystal-white Michael Jackson glove together with a house in Bel Air and the one in Sweetwater estate. But this is not it all, sadly the Obiang family spending in the US is staggering.

If you think that Teodoro and Teodorin were done in this time period to spend money in the United States, they did more!

“In June 2005, Nguema purchased two 50-foot, high-performance racing boats in Ft. Myers, Florida, for a total of over $ 2 million” (…)”Between April and June 2006, Nguema’s luxery expenditures included a combined total of $68 million on just two assets; the defendant Malibu mansion, for which the purchase price was $ 30 million, and a Gulfstream G-V private jet, which cost over $38 million” (…)”In a single month in 2004, for example, he spent over $80,000 at Gucci and over $50,000 at Dolce and Gabbana in a shopping spree in the United States” (…)”From June 2010 through June 2011, Nguema spent a total of approximately $3.2 million on various items of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including $275,000 for the defendant “Bad Tour” glove, $80,000 for a pair of crystal-covered socks, $140,000 for a jacket and shirt, and $245,000 for a basketball signed by Michael Jackson and basketball star Michael Jordan” (…)”Nguema created companies in various names, including “Beautiful Vision, Inc” and “Unlimited Horizon Inc.,” and opened bank accounts in the United States in the name of those companies. Nguema also wired transferred funds to bank accounts controlled by intermediaries, who then used the money to pay for his personal expenses, or transferred money from those accounts t accounts in the names of the corporations he formed, and then used the corporate accounts to pay his personal expenses” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).

Jackson_memorabilia

How did Teoderin buy the Michael Jackson Memorabilia?

“In August 2010, an intermediary registered Nguema to bid in a live auction of celebrity memorabilia (called the “Legends” auctions) taking place on October 9, 2010, in Macau, China (October 8, 2010, in California). The intermediary advised the auction house by email to “Please make sure that [Nguema’s] name does not appear anywhere, he should be invisible,” and to “please make sure that where a name needs to be, my name is there. This is very important” (…)”The auction house prepared two invoices in the same name of the intermediary, totaling $1,398,062.50, using the address of the Sweetwater property” (…)”When one of Nguema’s assistants received the invoices, she instructed the auction house to revise the invoices to indicate that the purchases were being billed to “Amadeo Oluy, Malabo, Guinea Equatorial-“. These items were shipped to E.G.” (…)”In December 2010, another function of celebrity memorabilia was held by the same auction house, this time in Beverly Hills, California. An intermediary came to the auction on Nguema’s behalf and successfully bid in the defendant white crystal-covered “Bad Tour”glove and other defendant items listen in Attachment A-1, attached hereto. The total cost of these items was $872,125.00” (…)”On January 31, 2011, Nguema caused $872,112.00 to be wire transferred from an account in the name of Eloba Construction, S.A., Equatorial Guinea to an account at American Business Bank in Los Angles in the name of the auction house, Julien Entertainment, to pay for the items purchased at the December 2010 auction. This items was subsequently packed for shipment and delivered to the defendant Sweetwater property” (…)”On March 29, 2011, an employee of the auction house sent her employer a email regarding the invoices for the items purchased on behalf of Nguema, asking,

I assume I need to rewrite the invoices in the same fashion as I’ve done in prior sales? (putting lots on one page, adding catalog page numbers and changing the Buyer’s name” (…)”In June 2011, Nguema again used an intermediary bid on more Michael Jackson memorabilia at another “Music Icons” auction. The intermediary successfully bid on the items costing a total of $379,692.00 sent by “Oluy Amadeo” in Equatorial Guinea to the bank account of the auction house at American Business Bank in Los Angles, California. The items purchased by Nguema at the June 2011” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).

As you can see the son of President Teodoro Obiang really have a thing for the memorabilia of the late Michael Jackson and have spent a fortune on it. That shows where monies go to. So it is not only the properties, but all from signed posters, gloves, statues and bags; all kind of former fandom equipment and limited editions that are signed by Michael Jackson and used by him in his lifetime.

Obiang Cartoon

Here is an letter from CSO’s on the case:  

“Mr. Nguema’s attorneys, Juan P. Morillo and Tomislav Joksimovic, at the time of Clifford Chance US LLP, formally “agreed, and…so advised [their] client, that none of [Mr. Nguema’s] assets in the United States [would] be moved or otherwise made unavailable until…the government has had an opportunity to consider any evidence presented [by Mr. Nguema’s counsel]”.4” (…)”About three weeks later, Mr. Lyons informed Ms. Hudson “that the items of Michael Jackson memorabilia named as defendants in the complaint [were] no longer in the United States.”7 Her October 27, 2011 formal demand that Mr. Nguema return the Michael Jackson memorabilia to Government representatives in the United States went unheeded. Indeed, Mr. Nguema’s contempt for his legal obligations and the commitments made by his representatives were amply illustrated by his decision some time later to flaunt the Michael Jackson memorabilia in a highly publicized exhibition in Equatorial Guinea” (…)”According to the same information received, Mr Roberto Berardi had found out early 2013 about the asset forfeiture action by the United States Department of Justice against the US-based properties that his business partner had purchased by using accounts in Equatorial Guinea banks in the name of Eloba Construccion. Mr Roberto Berardi had subsequently raised the issue with his partner Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue. There are reasons to believe that Mr Roberto Berardi could be a very damaging witness in the US investigation and was therefore arrested and imprisoned” (…)”Ensures that Mr. Nguema and/or his family does not, and does not appear to, retain de facto control over disposition of any funds or other benefits that are intended to be, or may be, allocated to the benefit of the victims of the alleged corrupt practices, namely, the people of Equatorial Guinea” (Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa, 2014).

This here is the picture of how the Government of Equatorial Guinea is spending their monies on the family of the dictator instead of building infrastructure, health-care and the education. There is viable evidence of fraud and embezzlement as the government funds getting send directly from Equatorial Guinea to American banks used on whatever luxuries that Teodorin Obiang wants or needs in his collections. Either if it is a fancy car or something from Michael Jackson memorabilia. That proves to what extent this family eats the government funds and doesn’t care how it looks. The country is nearly never in the headlines, last real time before the recent elections was because of the African Cup of Nation that was held there and even made Sepp Blatter visit the country from his hectic office days in Switzerland.

You can think about the information and what signal it really sends. What this means for the government of Equatorial Guinea that the President Obiang can stay in power since 1970s and over 30 years. The viable price of that is the embezzlement and the grand-corruption. Together with the made corporations to move the embezzled money from the Nation to other places like Los Angeles, California. Peace.

Reference:

Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa – ‘Proposed Settlement in US v. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO; and US v. One Gulfstream G-V Jet Aircraft Displaying Tail Number VPCES, Its Tools and Appurtenances (collectively, the “Case”)’ (05.08.2014) letter to Eric H. Holder Jr. Attorney General in U.S. Department of Justice.

Embassy of Equatorial Guinea – ‘FIFA PRESIDENT PRAISES DEVELOPMENT IN EQUATORIAL GUINEADURING VISIT’ (08.06.2010)

Global Witness – ‘Secret documents reveal multi-million dollar shopping spree by Africandictator’s son; US authorities fail to act on evidence of corruption’ (17.11.2009)

United States District Court for the Central District of California – United States of America V. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; one 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO – Case of Forfeiture in REM. (13 October 2011).

Opinion: Who is really the “Empty Suit”? Who might it be the Empty Suit in the Ministry of Health Care or KCCA? As the recent unfolded operations of maladministration in the public view… henceforth somebody who is just nodding to the Executive for the brown envelope.

The Wire Jimmy McNulty

McNULTY: “West Baltimore is dying and you empty suits are running around to pin some politician’s pelt to the wall. Thought you was real police, brother” (The Wire Season 2, Episode 13).

There is in this day and age lots of appointed government officials, they work supposed to be diligent and with honour of the codes of their work, not work directly for the ones that appointed them. That cannot always be easy as the station and the position would not been opened or given to the person if the appointee didn’t give that extended hand or blessing for the job. When you have that situation you need a strong state and strict regulatory regime that counter the possible backhand and kickbacks to the ones that appointed them.

Why do I discuss this at this point? Because it is a vital part of our government regimes and is a question that can be asked in nearly all parts of the globe. As all jobs in the branches of government does not automatically goes to the most educated, relied on or the one person who has the most integrity in the position. Instead the man or woman who gets appointed is an “empty suit”.

Krugman Boardroom

What some of them might do?

“What typically saves the empty suit is the tenuous relation between what he or she does and any actual business results. This may be a function of the job he’s in: a staff post, with lots of power to nix others’ initiatives but no responsibility to make or sell anything. Or a pocket of avoirdupois in a still-too-fat corporate bureaucracy, the kind of position that causes underlings to scratch their heads and wonder, ”Gee, do we really need all these vice presidents?” Or the empty suit may have come up through a system that rotates fast- trackers through a new job every 18 months, even though the effects of his tenure don’t become evident for two to three years. He hardly had time to get any grounding in the work his people do, and he may have royally screwed up the few decisions he was compelled to make, but when the chickens come home to roost, he has flown. If somebody has the bad taste to try to assign responsibility, the suit can easily fuzz the matter over by suggesting that the blame rests with his successor or former subordinates” (Kiechel, 1989).

There certainly similar like the ones described in our time in every department, every corporation and every single institution we know of. This might be the Electoral Commission of Uganda and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya. As much as the regulatory chairs of the banking industry of Kenya must feel like empty suits these days as the confidence at that is low-key as well. The Chase Bank, The Imperial Bank and National Bank of Kenya have fallen from grace. The most likely selling of the Barclays Bank African Group might also make the fragile banking sector into more disarray as the leading regulators seems like the extra board-members instead of people who uses their position and chair with care and uses the mandate to make a difference and even square.

Soroti Hospital April 2016

The situations are different when the appointed is not hired for their knowledge of their field, but the loyalty of the regime or government that is running in the country. The likes of Ministry of Health in Uganda for the moment where the hospitals are creaking and the machines are criss-crossing between life and death. Electricity and other cases of depleted. As the missing extra blood for surgery, the copy-medication and the loss of necessary equipment; that shows the lack of management and reasons for empty suits. The highest empty suit for the moment must be State Minister for Health Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi who seems to be more concern with catching checks then doing his job at this point. This point comes with the correlation of Minster of Health Hon. Elioda Tumwesige and the State Minister for Primary Health Hon. Sarah Opendi Ochieng. One of the three must generate a valued pay-check and makes sure that the NMS delivers the Global Funded projects and the other government funded health care, but either Chris, Elioda or Sarah, one of them or more must be a hired “empty suit” as the three of them are put into ministerial position working for initially the same thing.

lukwago-musisi

It is just like the same mess with the KCCA where you have KCCA Executive Director of Jennifer Musisi. You have Frank Tumbewaze who is both Minister of the Presidency and Kampala Affairs. Then you have the third person who got a mandate the Presidential Advisor for Kampala affairs Mr. Singh Katongole what he does is surely only him and the Executive of Uganda who knows, since his appointment in December 2015 his silence must mean a envelope and letting Hon. Tumbewaze and Hon. Musisi does what they like. To make it more hectic you have the actual people’s elected through the ballot who supposed to run the Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. So you have hon. Musisi, Hon. Tumbewazi, Hon. Katongole and Lord Mayor Lukwago. All of them are supposed to central people in the running of administration and regulate the divisions of Kampala politically and create policies that builds and secure the functions of KCCA. That must be hectic one of these men and woman must be a empty suit. Unless Hon. Katongole who I haven’t heard a word from since appointment is an ear-to-the ground and talking or addressing letters directly to the Executive or Head of State as his role has still not been served. As the accountability of the NRM-Regime is not strong they prefer keeping people in the dark.  Hon. Tumbewaze seems more to be the ones who was appointed to turn opposition Lord Mayor on his knees and therefore also gotten a permanent Executive Director in Musisi to shut down the elected person. But the end-game is that one of them must be an “Empty Suit” as the basic needs cannot be that big, and one of them is catching the brown envelopes without doing anything.

There are certainly more empty suits in the system as I started with the appointed men who is not educated for the position, but are there for the loyalty not because of the office is needed or there for a general purpose. That is the same as extra board-members in a corporation who is hired to vote for the general consensus in the board, but not to generate profits in some sense. They are there because the Corporation and LLC need useful idiots to be paid to follow the remarks of the stakeholders and shareholders, not the common-sense of their position.

Appointment of Nat. Gov. Spokesmen Kenya

We can all question the value of these leaders and honourable men-or-woman in a representative or appointed position by the President for instance. The level of credible men and woman and the need for expertise in the government organisations, into the department and the civic care from the road-development to the health care facilities need men and woman who knows the trade. As long the men does what is needed for the President or for the Stakeholders. The ones that lose are the ordinary person, employee or civil servants as they will either work under them or have to pay them tax-money to keep them. As they have to be paid an envelope to be the empty-dress. The person who is an empty dress doesn’t become that for free. Somebody has to be charge to keep him there. Most likely it is me or you. We can just ask ourselves. Who of the appointed leaders in government is an empty suit? Who in the corporate world are the extras?

Byandala

Lastly, why does the Minister Without Portfolio. Hon. Abraham Byandala gets away and is not questioned by the opposition or anybody else. Why is this man the free-man the invisible creature in the parliament that does not have scruples? This since this position is the epitome of a Empty Suit. He is a MINISTER, but does not have an OFFICE, Department or a MINISTRY to run. Hon. Byandala can do as he pleases and still get paid. You cannot check his ministry or running government portfolio as it is non-existence from the get-go. The Government Official without any oversight and anything to initial control or say in other words the official Minister of Nothing (MoN). Hon. Byandala is running the Ministry of Nothing. The Minister of Hot-Air and the checking the chapattis’ in parliament is fresh enough for Hon. Oulanyah’s taste.

Well, what do you think? Are the somebody you feels are an Empty suit? Somebody you question or wonder if really have anything more than pay-check from the Tax-Payers money, but does not use it’s office or even delivers anything. Then that person might be an empty suit who just nods the head to the Executive and the general leadership without exercising power or determine the future of the government institution, department or ministry. Even if the person is really doing anything in the boardroom or a needed voter for the stakeholders; if it is only the needed majority to follow procedure then the scheme need a check or reform.

River Okikolo FDC 13.01.2016

There will certainly be more stories and the existence of similar men and woman who can be described as “Empty Suits” and be stooges needed by any administration and corporations as they viciously need structure to control the citizens and the policies without questions from the inner-circle. Even if that means not procurement of needed medicines, fuel, transformers or building bridges to easier access the missing Okor Bridge in Kumi District: “This project was intended to connect Nyero and Mukongoro sub-counties in Kumi district” (MoFED, March 2015). A bridge that does not exist or is built by now so the sub-counties is not yet connect because of the altered situation and have to run long roads around the area than crossing straight over the river. So a project like this says there some empty suits as in 2009 as company was hired to build the river, by December 2012 the works by the river had stopped. Even if the departments to UNRA gave reports of progress of the project was last monitored in 2014 and by 2016 there not been done more to build the bridge since the monopoly of the Chinese Contractor have stifled the progression and in the end wasted government funds into a building a bridge who does not exist. Just like the Ministry of Nothing Hon. Byandala.

Think that is enough for today! Peace.

Reference:

Kiechel, Walter – ‘HOW TO SPOT AN EMPTY SUIT This breed of modern manager looks good and gets along splendidly with the brass. But is he contributing anything?’ (20.11.1989) link: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1989/11/20/72761/index.htm

Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development – ‘NATIONAL BUDGET FRAMEWORK PAPER FY 2015/16’ (March 2015).