Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent unusual and abrupt vanishing from the public upon returning to the country from an official trip to China through Dubai was because of extreme shock on learning of provable involvement in the raging gold fraud by senior government officials.
There is emerging evidence of heavily armed policemen, including at times the use of armed officers from the elite General Service Unit to guard and protect premises used by key suspects in the gold fraud.
The cartel also hides fake gold and hold conning meetings in upmarket estates in Nairobi. Their use of VIP security chase cars, normally reserved for top government officials, puts pressure on Interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i and top police bosses to come out clean.
The puzzles about top government officers’ involvement is worsened by background checks that reveal they have been close to Zaheer Jhanda the key suspect in the Dubai prince’s swindle.
The controversial businessman-cum-politician has been operating with powerful faces most of them trusted errand boys in political and business dealings, whose operations are always secretive.
Confidential sources within the corridors of power revealed that the head of state was so struck by the scam that he had to receive medical attention including doctors’ recommended bed rest, even as he ordered the police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to carry out a major crackdown to apprehend and prosecute all culprits.
That is why Uhuru went missing in action for two weeks.
It has now emerged that Uhuru was embarrassed when confronted with official complaints from his close friends in the UAE royalty of having been swindled over Sh400 million in a fake gold scandal which turned out to involve a section in his government, the police, a former Foreign Affairs minister and scores of MPs and government officials in customs department and airport managers.
Key suspects including Jhanda and gold scams con artist Jared Otieno have been rounded up but the involvement in the fraud by legislators and other senior government officials has raised alarm in the entire government as it makes Kenya to appear like a mafia-infested state.
These odd gold scandals and the widespread multibillion corruption scandals with senior officials’ involvement are a true reflection of what former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga called “a bandit economy” but government political leaders then, castigated him for it.