Anglo-Leasing crusader John Githongo has been handed a heavy slap by the High Court after being ordered to pay former minister Chris Murungaru sh 27 million for defamation over the billions saga implication.
The case stemmed from Anglo Leasing scandal in which the Mwai Kibaki regime lost billions of shillings in phantom security printing contracts.
The scam saw Anglo Leasing Finance paid Sh2.7 billion (at the current exchange rate) to supply the Kenyan government with a system to print new high-technology passports.
As President Kibaki’s adviser and permanent secretary for Ethics and Governance in the Narc administration, Mr Githongo had in 2005 prepared a dossier which linked Dr Murungaru, then vice president Moody Awori, and former Cabinet ministers Kiraitu Murungi and David Mwiraria to the multibillion-shilling Anglo Leasing scam.
The dossier contained detailed information of the fraudulent scheme, which begun with efforts to replace Kenya’s passport printing system. Even though the original price was €6 million (Sh681 million at current rates), the tender was eventually awarded to a British firm, Anglo Leasing and Finance, at €30 million (Sh3.4 billion).
The shadowy British firm would then sub-contract a French firm which had quoted the Sh681 million.
The report by Mr Githongo stated that the British firm was non-existent.
In the wake of the report and the increasing threats to his life and blackmail, Mr Githongo used the cover of an official government trip to London to go on exile from where he released a damning secret audio tape of Cabinet minister Mr Murungaru asking him to back off his Anglo Leasing investigations and in return they would clear his father of a loan he owed.
The revelations threw Mr Kibaki’s nascent administration into a spin and Narc never recovered as the scam remains a blot on Mr Kibaki’s presidency.
The since disappointed activist has sworn he will vigorously appeal the ruling.
“I am disappointed though unsurprised by the judgment that has emerged from the High Court with regard to the Anglo-Leasing defamation matter…. The matter has drudged through the courts for 13 years and been heard by different judges. It is my plan to appeal this judgment as vigorously as possible,” he said in a statement.