Kleptocracts, Dictators and the Angel of Death

Kleptocracts, Dictators and the Angel of Death

 

The age of 95 seems to be very popular for Presidents to die in Africa. Last week the former autocratic and corrupt leader of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi was finally taken by the Angel of Death at the ripe old age of 95. Now in Southern Africa that seems like a common age for leaders to die.  Last year the former autocratic President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe passed away at the same ripe old age of 95. Now 95 sounds like a ripe old age for a scoundrel to die but good leaders also die at 95. Nelson Mandela, a true revolutionary icon of the anti-apartheid struggle also died at 95. Of course other thugs and butchers did not make it to 95. The ‘Butcher of Uganda’ Idi Amin only lived to 78 years courtesy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which so kindly took him in after Tanzania ousted him in brief war in 1979. The man who would certainly be crowned as grand master of plunder on the African continent, Mobutu Sese Seko, former dictator of the DRC died of prostate cancer early on in Morocco in 1997 at the young age of 67. He had just been ousted earlier that year by Laurent Kabila in the first Congolese war.

 

So how is it that Mugabe and Arap Moi could live that long and the Angel of Death did not disturb either of them? Possibly it is just a matter of having good genes, but there are other perfectly valid explanations for their longevity. In the case of both there are many people who argue that the only reason for their longevity is that in fact crime really does pay. If you have stolen enough money from your people and gotten away with it, you can go to the best hospitals in Singapore or Dubai or London and have some of the world’s best doctors keep the Grim Reaper at bay, at least for a while. In the end, no matter how many rounds you fight with him successfully, he always wins the last battle when even the richest and the greatest of kleptocrats have to leave this world.

 

Other, more religious souls repeat the ironic aphorism that the reason for the longevity of these scoundrels is that only the good die young. Certainly in the case of Mandela, this may have been true, much less so with Arap Moi and Mugabe.

 

It is considered rude to speak ill of the dead but when the dead have done so much ill to so many then rudeness must surely take second place to telling the truth. Arap Moi has been given an official state burial by President Uhuru Kenyatta who had wonderful things to say about him even though there were few in Kenya who were sad to see him go in 2002, after 24 years in power.

 

When Mwai Kibaki became Kenya’s president after the departure of Moi, he established a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Goldenberg Scandal which was in many ways the crowning glory of corruption under Moi’s presidency. Goldenberg is perhaps the most audacious of the grand frauds ever committed on the African continent, and there are many competitors for that title. Arap Moi oversaw the Goldenberg scandal where a Mr Kamish Pattni and the Head of Kenyan Police security Mr Kanyotu established a trading and mining company that was supposed to export gold and diamonds from Kenya. The judicial inquiry that was established and found in 2005, after three very expensive years of research, that Goldenberg had managed to defraud the Kenyan state of at least $600-1,500 million in  subsidies by the government though Goldenberg was estimated to have made a total of $2.3 billion including the benefits of money laundering. Goldenberg was given a monopoly of exports of gold and diamonds from Kenya and a subsidy of 35% of the value of these exports. The fraud of course was that Kenya had absolutely no gold or diamonds.

 

This raises the question of how such a thing could occur. The Vice President and Minister of Finance, Saitoti was heavily involved in authorizing payments and allowing Goldenberg to continue to rob the people of Kenya. Some of the beneficiaries included Arap Moi’s children. Under the rules to obtain the subsidies Goldenberg had to get signatories from customs that exports occurred, the Central Bank of Kenya that revenue arrived, the Ministry of Minerals that production occurred and the Ministry of Finance for final authorization. A bevy of corrupt and well paid senior government officials all played their part in the plunder of the nation. In the end after three years the Commission of Inquiry finally wound up its work but no-one ever went to jail for this grand fraud. Crime without punishment remains an enduring theme of Kenyan political life.

There is one hero in this sad story. His name is David Sadera Munyakei who, while working as a clerk for the Central Bank of Kenya, provided information to opposition members of the Kenyan parliament in 1993 on the ‘exports’ of gold by Goldenberg. For his trouble, Mr. Munyakei was dismissed from his post at the Central Bank of Kenya, imprisoned, and spent the rest of his life in poverty in Mombasa. This is a reminder if more were ever needed, of the high price that honest men and women pay for telling the truth to power. He died in 2006.

It is common for white people in Africa to be reluctant to criticize African leaders. I have no need to prove my credentials to anyone as I have 50 years of anti-racist struggle behind me. As a free man I rejoice at the end of dictators and thieves who loot and plunder their people without mercy. My only sadness is that Angel of Death has been so tardy.