BIWOTT DEFENDS RECORD on MOLASSES, OUKO DEATH the Former Kerio South MP Has Been Accused in the Press of Corruption and Murder
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BIWOTT DEFENDS RECORD ON MOLASSES, OUKO DEATH The former Kerio South MP has been accused in the press of corruption and murder. Now Nicholas Biwott's lawyer rubbishes claims that he ran down the Kisumu molasses plant and killed foreign minister Robert Ouko BY ALFRED NYANDIEKA Propaganda means using information selectively to sway opinion. Used negatively, it takes the form of lying by omission. The article in The Weekend Star, written by Sarah Elderkin, entitled 'Kisumu Molasses Factory: How Did the Odingas Get It?' (Siasa, August 18/19) did just that. It dwelt on exploited, false and long-ago-discredited allegations of corruption and disputes surrounding the attempted revitalisation of the Kisumu Molasses plant in the later 1980s that were put forward as possible motives for the shocking murder of Kenya's late Foreign minister Dr Robert Ouko in 1990. The article was fashioned to substantiate support for the takeover of the Kisumu Molasses plant by Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the late 1990s. After reading the article, one is left wondering why Elderkin relates the murder and the plant's takeover. Perhaps that is beside the point. On the other hand what cannot be left alone, in the interest of posterity, are the articles' inaccurate and unacceptably misleading statements that touch on the late Ouko and the investigations that ensued after his death. Marianne Briner-Mattern's name witheld. Why? For example, Elderkin deliberately refrained from identifying the principal source of the information that she relied on in her article, one Marianne Brinner Marten and chose instead to refer to Marianne Brinner only as "her" or as 'the head of BAK'. 'Marianne Brinner is in fact the star witness that Superintendent Troon, who was brought in from Scotland Yard's organised crime unit to investigate Dr Robert Ouko's murder, relied on. Briner-Mattern, Airaehi and the 'Bak' group "honest" and "reputable"? In the course of his investigation Troon was put on notice by Kenya's then Industry minister Dalmas Otieno and senior civil servants that Airaghi and Marianne were of CONTINUED ON PAGE II INSIDE SIASA: THE WEEK IN REVIEW * THE BIG DEBATE * OPINION • YOUR LETTERS II weekendSTAR * September 15 /16 2012 FROM PAGE I "doubtful integrity" but he preferred the evidence of the two individuals over theirs. Troon explained when he appeared before the Ouko Judicial Commission of Inquiry held in 1991 that he relied on his personal judgment and that in his opinion Airaghi and Marianne were "honest and truthful" and their company 'BAK' was "reputable". Bak registered day ouko killed Had Troon chosen to review American, Italian and Swiss official" d o c u m e n t a t i o n and had he actually investigated Airaghi and Marianne objectively and impartially he would have discovered that their company BAK Group Marianne Briner + Partner' company was registered on February 13, 1990, the day that Robert Ouko was murdered . Extensive documented evidence drawn from company registers in Switzerland and Spain, incorporation documents, Dun and Bradstreet reports and other material, also establish that BAK was not a bona fide company and no BAK entity ever traded. He would also have discovered that a judgment delivered by a civil and criminal court in Milan in March 1987 convicted and sentenced Domenico Airaghi to imprisonment in March 1987 on extortion charges and for acts of dishonesty and attempted corruption. Airaghi appealed against his conviction but the original verdict was upheld on April 4, 1991. He was found by the court to have presented forged documents to the Milan court in an attempt to establish his defence and was described by the judge as having displayed "the attributes of an International Fortune Hunter" Airgahi's principle witness at his trial was one 'Marianne Briner', who "lived with Airaghi" and of whom the judge noted her "unreliability" as a witness. Marianne Briner who described herself in Airaghi's court case as a "secretary" of an "International Escort" and "employment agency", gave evidence in that case. The Milan court found her evidence in support of Airaghi to be false. The judge said of Marianne Briner," that it would be better to draw a "compassionate veil" over her testimony and commented on her "unreliability" as a witness. After Dr Ouko's death Airaghi and Marianne tried to extort PRIME MINISTER RAILA ODINGA: He has been vociferous in his defence of the Odinga family against allegations that $5,975,000 from the Kenya government. it acquired the Kisumu Molasses plant under questionable circumstances. It is a fact therefore, that for the entire time that Domenico Airgahi and Marianne Brinener were dealing with Dr Ouko, the Kenya government and subsequently with Troon, Airaghi was on bail as a convicted criminal and Marianne, who was implicated in his crime, a proven liar. In Kenya they behaved no differently from the way they had in Italy, they were dishonest and extortionist 'fortune hunters' who gave false evidence Let me explain. Who threatened Dr Ouko? In the article, Elderkin says that BAK indicated that, in the days ir ddiately before he died, Ouko had been preparing a report on the high-level corruption that was hindering the revival of the molasses plant." Elderkin then says that "The writer of the memorandum [aka Marianne Brinner] said, "I' spoke with him [Ouko} last on Saturday, February 10, when ... he [Ouko] told me [Marianne Brinener] he was staying in Kisumu to finish his report for HE [President Moi]...." Three days after this conversation about the report Ouko was preparing on the molasses plant, Ouko was dead. Marianne Briner-Mattem was the only source of this allegation and no such report was ever found. Marianne Briner-Mattern handed over to Troon a letter that she said she had sent to Dr Ouko on January 29,1990 - two weeks before he died. Troon read out and produced this letter as evidence at the 1991 Judicial Inquiry. The letter did in fact allege corruption but the allegation is of election fraud and accuses Ouko over the 'illegal' employment of workers at the Kisumu Molasses plant and their misuse as campaigners for Dr Ouko during the 1988 election. In the letter Marianne Briner-Mattern says she has appointed a Nairobi law firm [Kaplan & Stratton] to represent her; that she plans to meet with President Moi; t h a t Moi will ask Ouko for an explanation; that Ouko should 'admit a mistake'; and that she [Marianne] was 'enabling you [Ouko] to prepare NICHOLAS BIWOTT AND THE LATE ROBERT OUKO: All decisions relating to the Kisumu Molasses Project were taken your [Ouko's] defence'. through the Ministry of Industry, first under Dr Robert Ouko and after March 1988 under Dalmas Otieno. This letter has nothing to do with claims against Biwott in relation to kickbacks, rival companies, high-level corruption On February 22,2005,15 years after Troon's investigation, Again Marianne Briner-Mattern was unable to produce any as Elderkin would have you believe. Marianne Briner-Mattern changed her story. Whilst giving evidence in support of her allegations. Troon accepted at paragraphs 167,168 and 170 of his testimony to the Parliamentary committee hearings in The Select Committee denied Biwott's lawyer the right to "Final Report' on the death of Hon Dr Ouko that there was London in February 2005, Marianne claimed that she "knew cross-examine Marianne. no 'independent evidence' to substantiate or corroborate more", alleging that another reason for Ouko's murder, Marianne Briher-Mattem's claims that she had spoken to which she had feared for her life revealing before, was that Revival of Kisumu molasses plant: who Dr Ouko, sent him letters shortly before he was murdered, Ouko knew too much about President Moi's private life and was responsible? or if she had, that they had been received. At paragraph the provision of 'Ugandan girls' for his pleasure, supplied by Sarah Elderkin's disingenuous historical account of the 172 of his 'Final Report' Troon wrote, 'I can only rely on what Nicholas Biwott and how these girls were being sterilised Molasses Plant and claim that in the 1980s the revival of she [Briner-Mattern] says concerning the letters'. Again he to stop pregnancies to save Moi the embarrassment. This is the Kisumu Molasses plant "eventually fell" under Nicholas accepted her testimony "at face value". information Ouko was going to reveal. Biwott's auspices as Minister of Energy need to be Under cross-examination on November 18,1991 by On November 23,2004, giving testimony to the corrected. Bernard Chunga, lead counsel of the Judicial Inquriy, Troon Gor Sunghu chaired Parliamentary Select Committee Biwott did not become Minister of Energy until September also accepted that the allegations of corruption about the investigating the death of Ouko, Marianne said that "any 1983 and had nothing to do with its abandonment in 1982 Molasses Plant "boil down to BAK directors" who were his papers" she "held regarding Kenya had disappeared", and it being put into receivership in 1983. "principal witnesses" and that without these two witnesses mysteriously stolen whilst she was in Tanzania and that the Thereafter in 1986 President Moi announced that the there was no case against Nicholas Biwott. people who stole them, "went out to sea" in a "speed boat". Kisumu 'Molasses Project' was going to be revived and weekendSTAR -fr September September 15 /16 2012 III THE LATE GEORGE SAITOTI: He was the Minister of Finance at the time Doctor Robert Ouko's remains were discov- DANIEL ARAP MOI: He constituted a commission of ered at Got Alila near his Koru Farm in Kisumu.