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"CORRUPT DEALINGS" AT BARCLAYS KENYA
BY MICHAEL MUNDIA KAMAU, former Barclays Kenya employee
Introduction of the case to Nairobians.Com
" Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya
Tuesday, 15th August 2006
I introduce myself as a former employee of Barclays Bank of Kenya, who was recently dismissed from employment on scandalous and corrupt grounds. I was dismissed from service on Tuesday, 21st February 2006.
A prelude of the scandalous episode accompanies this e-mail, by way of letters by me dated 21st February 2006, 20th February 2006, 14th February 2006, 13th February 2006, 26th January 2006, 5th January 2006 and
28th December 2005.
You will note a deliberate and manipulative attempt to conceal corrupt, underhand and shadowy dealings at the Kenya office of Barclays Advisory and Registrar Services, a subsidiary of Barclays PLC of the United Kingdom and ABSA Africa of South Africa.
All efforts over the years to raise concerns with the management of Barclays Advisory and Registrar Services Limited, Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited and Barclays Bank PLC of the United Kingdom, have gone unheeded, and ultimately resulted in my dismissal on 21st
February 2006.
I trust that you will first want to study the advance material below, before deciding on how to proceed.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Mundia Kamau"
Prelude letters to Barclays:
"Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya
21st February 2006
Head of IT and Operations
Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited
Moi Avenue, Bank House, 7th floor
P.O. Box 30120
00100 GPO
Nairobi
Kenya
Dear Sir,
RE: PRIVATE SECTOR ANGLO LEASING TYPE SCANDAL AT
BARCLAYS KENYA
This morning, Tuesday, 21st February 2006, Mr.X handed me my dismissal letter at 8.40 a.m., for my role in the *** matter. You were
not even brave or courageous enough to discharge this crucial function, and cowardly delegated it to Mr. X
I have been hurriedly dismissed before crucial questions to my letters below of 20th February 2006, 14th February 2006, 13th February 2006, 26th January 2006, 5th January 2006 and 28th December 2005, have
been answered.
I took an early opportunity to expose this and other troubling related matters to the Barclays and ABSA Offices in the United Kingdom and South Africa, the Central Staff Committee of Barclays Bank of Kenya
Limited, the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU), the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Justice, the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission (KACC), the Central Bank of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), the Parliamentary Committees on Finance, Labour and Justice, severally, the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, yet none of these organisations has bothered respond, intervene or get involved.
This is very troubling because almost all of the aforementioned organizations have copies of my letters below of 20th February 2006, 14th February 2006, 13th February 2006, 26th January 2006, 5th January 2006 and 28th December 2005, and more, but no action has been taken.
My conclusion is that there is a grand conspiracy to conceal one of the most shameful private sector financial and securities scandals in the history of this country, comparable only to the disgraceful Anglo Leasing and Goldenburg scandals of the public sector.
With specific reference to the *** matter, my dismissal has been effected before a host of questions have been answered, and in particular, the five crucial ones below:
(i) Why am I the only officer who has been
purportedly investigated and dismissed with
regard to the *** matter, yet the
Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited
shareholding was immobilised for sale by
myself, and the Standard Chartered Bank
Kenya Limited shareholding was immobilised for
sale by a different officer at Barclays
Advisory and Registrar Services Limited? I
asked this question in my letter below of 13th
February 2006, which please see, and have still
not received a response.
(ii) Why am I the only member of staff who has been
under investigation in the above matter of
***, and ultimately been dismissed, when the documents
were handled by at least five other members of staff at
Barclays Advisory and Registrar Services
Limited? I asked this question in my letter
below of 14th February 2006, which please see,
and have still not received a response.
(iii) Are investigations into the thirteen other fraud
cases mentioned in my letter below of 28th
December 2005, which I am made to understand
have grown to sixteen during the period of my
suspension, being handled with the same comical
pace of urgency as the *** case? I
asked this question in my letter below of 14th
February 2006, which please see, and have still
not received a response.
Related to this, I again specifically draw you attention to Page 17 of the "The Standard" of Thursday, 9th February 2006, which carries the story
of one of the mentioned frauds that have been established during the period of my suspension and dismissal. The fraud is for East African Breweries Limited shares worth US $ 994,754 and the story is carried under the heading "KRA boss summoned"
(iv) Several members of staff at Barclays Advisory
and Registrar Services Limited have
recorded statements with the Banking Fraud and
Investigation Unit of the Central Bank of Kenya
(CBK), regarding their roles in the numerous
frauds that have lately been unearthed at
Barclays Advisory and Registrar Services
Limited. I have not been made to record a single
statement regarding the *** matter
with the Banking Fraud and Investigation Unit of
the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), clearly because
the matter is not regarded as criminal, yet I
have been on a 60 day suspension on half pay,
purportedly in line with clause A5 C) i) of
the Collective Agreement covering Section Heads,
Check Clerks, Clerical and subordinate staffï
which is invoked in matters considered of a
criminal nature, and neither have I not been
charged or appeared in a Court of Law on a
criminal charge. I have nevertheless been
dismissed and no refund of my deducted salaries
has been made to me
(v) Despite earlier blowing the whistle seven and a
half years ago by way of my reports of 9th July
1998 and 30th July 1998, and thereafter in the
years 1999, 2000 and recently but not finally,
in the year 2004 by way of my 19 extensive
reports on the infamous and shameful *********
fraud case, no correctiveaction has ever been taken at
Barclays Advisory and Registrar Services Limited.
My dismissal must come as a relief because I am now
finally out of the way.
My only regret is that I did not expose these horrifying, scandalous and criminal affairs to the public earlier, no doubt, because I feared losing my
job. This is a burden of indecisiveness and betrayal to society that I will always have to bear.
I will not insult myself by appealing your decision to dismiss me empty handed after nine and a half years of dedicated service. I will also not give credence and legitimacy to the criminal activities of the Barclays and ABSA Group worldwide by lodging an internal appeal against my dismissal. I will fight for and seek redress externally in my capacity as a citizen of the Republic of Kenya, however long it takes. If my time on this Earth expires before the fight is concluded, then I will ensure that the fight is carried on by those I leave behind.
The coming weeks will be difficult for me, but I will nevertheless systematically reveal the Dens of Vice, Deceipt, Corruption, Thuggery, Contempt, Robbery, Hypocrisy and Theft that the Barclays/ABSA Groups
worldwide, actually are. In the coming weeks, I will systematically reveal how the Barclays/ABSA Groups worldwide, in conjunction with a larger and wider network, attempted to criminally and shamefully conceal a Kenyan private sector Anglo Leasing type scam.
Should I be harmed or killed, I have ensured that Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited and the Barclays/ABSA Groups worldwide, are held responsible.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Mundia Kamau"
The opinions of authors are not necessarily those of Nairobians.Com
Next time on EZone: prelude to this - how the case begun. Nairobians.Com will attempt to obtain a statement from Barclays.
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On Nairobians.Com Entrepreneurs' Zone we give Nairobians the chance to air their views about matters of commerce, business, and the Kenyan economy. Below read the radical views of one anonymous Kenyan, a whistleblower who believes that there is more to the collapse of Uchumi Supermarkets than ordinary people know.
WHY UCHUMI FELL
By Anonymous Whistleblower
"The sudden declaration of insolvency of Uchumi Supermarkets Limited by it’s Board of Directors, must not be allowed to go unpunished. The announcement ordering an investigation by Minister of Trade is insufficient, and what is instead required, are full scale reprisals and convictions.
The Daily Nation of 2nd June 2006 reported that Uchumi Supermarkets Limited had healthy cash reserves until the year 2001. For a start, the Uchumi Boards between the years 2001 and present, must immediately be arrested and charged with deliberate misappropriation of public funds.
In addition, the CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Kenya (Uchumi’s auditors), should also be arrested and jointly charged on several counts of fiduciary fraud, alongside the various Uchumi Boards since the year 2001, the CEO of the Capital Markets Authority, theCEO of the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the CEO of The Central Depositories and Settlement Corporation. The audit firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers Worldwide must also be cited for sterner global action, following similar other fiduciary felonies. Only last month (May 2006), the Financial Services Agency of Japan suspended PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan from carrying out audits for two months, following its failure to detect accounting fraud at Japanese cosmetics giant Kanebo. Chuo Aoyama PwC will not be able to conduct audits in July and August.
Former top Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, have also just been convicted by the US
Supreme Court on several counts of fraud, and the aforementioned top brass of Kenyan Corporations and the Kenyan stock markets, must also be made to follow suit. Enron auditors Arthur Andersen, were earlier convicted in March 2006 in a lower court, for witnessing tampering, by instructing its employees about shredding documents. PricewaterhouseCoopers Kenya, must not also be spared.
The ramifications of Uchumi’s insolvency run deeper than meets the eye. For instance, the shares that were traded on the 31st of May 2006, and prior to that, will have to be paid for in full. The Central Depository and Settlements Corporation and Nairobi Stock Exchange, requires that a settlement cheque be delivered five days after the shares were traded (T+5), at which time the buyer’s Central Depository Account is also required to be credited with full amount of shares purchased. Uchumi has been trading heavily of late, and settlements run into hundreds of millions of Kenya Shillings.
Much of the trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange(including big trades), is conducted on a casual and informal basis. In other words, all that it takes on several occasions, is for a client to give instructions to buy or sell shares via a telephone call. It is very likely that several individuals and corporations will disown several trades, especially those that were conducted on 31st May 2006, and immediately prior to that. Settlement of trades worth millions of Kenya Shillings will therefore have to be borne by the affected stockbrokers, otherwise they risk being suspended or being registered by the Capital Markets Authority, the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the Central Depository and Settlements Corporation.
All brokers are require to retain security deposits worth five million Kenya Shillings with the Capital
Markets Authority, the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the Central Depository and Settlements Corporation. This is what the regulators are supposed to fall back on, should a stockbroker default on payment, or become insolvent. There are 18 registered stockbrokers, meaning that the nominal value of security deposits currently held by the regulators, is 90 million Kenya shillings (approximately 1.25 million US dollars). Shares worth approximately 23.2 million Kenya Shillings alone, were traded on 31st May 2006, and cash settlement of this must be made on or before
Thursday, 8th June 2006. Settlement for the equally heavy trades of 30th May 2006 and 29th May 2006, also have to be made on or before Wednesday, 7th June 2006
and Tuesday, 6th June 2006, respectively.
Monies owed from the most recent Uchumi trades very likely exceed the combined value of security deposits worth US $ 1.25 million, held by the Kenyan market regulators, and it is possible that one or two stockbrokers may be suspended or deregistered in the near or not too distant future. This is part of the immediate damage that has been caused by a very a small group of extremely reckless individuals.
This country can no longer afford to take soft options. Recklessness of this magnitude must also be countered with equal brutality, to safeguard the livelihoods of a population now estimated to stand between 33 and 36 million people.
There is no seriousness with which the stock market is being run in Kenya. Even the most basic of functions, like the daily updating of trading prices on the stock exchange website, has become a task. Some times there are no updates as late as 7.00 p.m., despite trading having closed at 12 noon. At close of trading on Friday, 26th May 2006, there was no update until Monday morning, 29th May 2006. One wonders how investors are expected to keep track effectively. Discrepancies also abound. For instance National Bank of Kenya recorded a 12 month high of KShs. 48.50 on 15th May 2006, yet since then, stock exchange tabulations have reflected a 12 month high of either KShs. 48.00 or KShs. 48.25. Shareholder investments in Kenya are not safe.
The mainstream media in Kenya, has also been extremely ineffective in helping combat this fiduciary crimes, and have instead resorted to cluttering their publications and broadcasts with all manner of mundane and unhelpful features, lacking completely in value. A full two years ago on 7th May 2004 for instance, I took the trouble to blow the whistle on some of these fiduciary crimes through my letters below. No one, except the Kenya Times and the alternative press (“gutter press”), bothered publish the letters in public interest. The mainstream Kenyan media, as an accessory after the fact, should therefore also be jointly charged with the above perpetrators of malice and destruction."
The opinions of authors are not necessarily those of Nairobians.Com