ARMENIAN ‘SECURITY EXPERTS’ HEIGHTEN POLITICAL PASSIONS IN KENYA

Agence France Presse — English
March 16, 2006 Thursday 5:09 PM GMT

Nairobi

Two Armenian brothers operating in Kenya are “security experts”, a
senior government official said Thursday, but opposition politicians
say they mercenaries doing dirty work for the state.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua has described the Armenians as
legitimate investors and influential opposition lawmaker Raila Odinga,
who brought the affair to light, has said they werehired by the state
to carry out secret operations.

Mutua said Artur Sargasyan, 36, and Artur Margayan, 33, were investors
who registered a development and financial consultance firm called
Brother Link International on December 1, 2005, but obtained their
work permits on January 23.

Amid the controversy on what the two actually do, a well-placed top
government official told AFP that they are “security experts,” but
declined to explain their mission in the east African country.

“They are security experts,” the official, who asked to remain unnamed,
told AFP.

Odinga began the saga when he claimed the two were among hooded
policemen who raided Standard Group — the country’s second largest
media house — early this month after it published an report that
President Mwai Kibaki held secret talks with his onetime ally turned
foe Kalonzo Musyoka.

Police officials could not be reached Thursday for comment on the
respective claims.

On Monday, the Armenians, who said they are nephews of Armenia’s
President Robert Kocharyan, gave a press conference in Nairobi
airport’s government VIP Lounge to deny the allegations they were
mercenaries and declare themselves people seeking “business investment
venture in the hotel industry and general trade.”

“I have been greatly troubled by reports … to the effect that I
am a mercenary … These accusations are entirely false hence the
decision to come to Kenya,” Sargasyan told reporters, saying he had
returned from Dubai that day to clear his name.

Yet an official document shown to AFP indicated that the pair were not
on the national carrier Kenya Airways passenger manifest from Dubai.

“This means they have not left Kenya,” since they came, the official
said.

Police have issued no formal statement except recorded ones from
Odinga, a fierce foe of the government of President Mwai Kibaki,
and lawmaker Kalonzo Musyoka, who conceded they have met the pair,
but described them as “dangerous people.”

The Armenians further claim they loaned Odinga 1.5 million dollars but
refused to grant a further three billion shillings (42 million dollars)
“to finance an anticipated no-confidence vote against the president.”

Odinga denies both these claims. He went further and produced copies
of the Armenians’ passports in public, but refused to say where he
got them from.

He and Musyoka are among opposition members of a so-called Orange
Democratic Movement (ODM) that carried out a successful campaign last
year against a government-backed constitution that handed Kibaki a
humiliating defeat in a referendum vote.

“The two individuals have never worked for the government of Kenya
nor undertaken any business with or for the government of Kenya,”
Mutua told press conference here.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress