NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 15 – Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has strongly denied losing any cash upon returning from The Hague on Monday.
In a statement, Mr Kenyatta has described the report of missing Sh840m as outrageous.
He however said his aide lost a bag at the JKIA.
Below is the full statement from his office.
The front page article in \’The Standard\’ this morning is an atrocious falsehood and part of the current conspiracy to discredit the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta. The description, the blogs (which specifically mention his name) plus the fact that only he reported a lost bag, make it very clear that the accusations are specifically against the DPM.
His assistant left one of his bags on the plane on Monday morning when they arrived back in Nairobi. All his bags had been subjected to normal security screening and scanning in Amsterdam.
When the assistant went back to look for it, it was missing and the matter was reported to Kenya Airways and the police. The contents were detailed to the police and they are still tracing this bag.
USD10m in USD100 notes weighs 100 kg is 4 cubic feet and the bag was a small computer bag. This just confirms how ludicrous the report is.
Carrying that amount of cash is in contravention of many laws and constitutes a serious crime. The most serious being money laundering, which legislation the DPM was instrumental in having passed.
The statement was not verified with either the DPM, the police nor any other authority.
The DPM has therefore instructed his lawyers to take immediate legal action against the Standard for publishing such atrocious false hoods and has reported the matter to the police and requested them to investigate the very serious crimes that are committed by anyone who makes such serious false accusations.
The consequences of such accusations are even more serious as they would mean his contravention of the Court Order issued by the Judges of the ICC. It appears that the object of the false accusations was an attempt to seriously prejudice the DPM’s position before the court in the Hague.
It is extremely disappointing that there are forces that will go to such lengths and write such obviously false statements in order to discredit the DPM. It is of extreme concern that the media can publish such unverified falsehoods. It is very important that the police find and expose the persons behind these atrocious accusations and that the media are taken to task for publishing, what is so obviously, a malicious and false report.
Munyori Buku
Director of Communication
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance
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