Scandals eclipsed by mercenaries issue
By KIPKOECH KOMUGOR

Kenya Times, Kenya
March 16 2006

The mercenary sub-plot has been so captivating the original drama,
the attack on the Standard Group by hooded police officers, from
which the new succulent saga broke, has completely been pushed to the
periphery. Not only has the main plot been ignored, other previously
hot issues like the Anglo Leasing, Goldenberg and Ndung’u Land Report
have had to contend with playing supporting roles as the mercenary
drama takes over the starring role on the national stage.

Perhaps it’s got something to do with the swashbuckling mannerisms
of the alleged dogs of war. Watching them walk to the VIP lounge on
Monday, one couldn’t help feeling that he was watching a blockbuster
movie unfold live on location. Like the really bad guys in a film,
the men in their heavily accented English bragged of their money bags
status (they can’t pay us but we can pay them… your country’s budget
cannot afford our services even if we were mercenaries), dropped names
( they apparently are family with the Armenian president or something
and one of them is set to vie for one such big post next year).

They are living in Runda which is easily one of the poshest addresses
in the city, they move around in fast flashy cars, they are dripping
gold from the neck and wrists… it can make the sleepiest head
want to stay up late and watch the movie. Mr. Artur Margaryan and
Artur Sargsyan are built alright. But they don’t look like your
run-of-the-mill, River Road musclemen for hire. Nor do they give the
impression of struggling businessmen from the former Soviet Union
out to try their luck for an honest buck or two in some backwater
African country. They cut the image of thoroughbreds who are used to
doing business with the high and mighty. They look rough in a smooth,
refined way.

But the most intriguing thing about the mercenary story has been its
flow. Too many unexpected twists and turns. Too many loose ends. And
the number of people it has been able to suck into the cast in a
very short time has been truly amazing. It opened with a claim by
former Cabinet Minister Raila Odinga a few days after the attack
on the Standard that some of the people involved in the operation
were foreigners from Russia whom he termed as mercenaries hired by
powerful people in Government to eliminate some undesirables in the
ODM. Raila’s claim (though it could have been easily dismissed then
as the now commonplace crying wolf ramblings the ODM leader has made
a career of) seemed to ring a bell. According to some employees of
the Standard Group who witnessed the attack on their offices on the
morning of March 2, the gang that raided their office on the fateful
Thursday night were being ordered around by people speaking in a
foreign accent probably Arab or something close.

Pressed by the police spokesman Jasper Ombati to record a statement
with the police over his allegations, Raila refused but later gave in
and met the Police Commissioner Hussein Ali. Later, Raila recorded
a statement where he claimed he had given police crucial leads into
the whereabouts of the alleged hit men. Raila followed his statement
with the release of passport copies to the Press showing that the
men were actually Armenians and not Russians as he had claimed earlier.

Raila seemed to have the whole story down to the minutest details. He
claimed he knew where the men lived and who their Kenyan associates
were. The most interesting name there was obviously one of a Narc
activist. Raila did not need to give details of the particular
activists since that title in Kenyan’s minds has come be associated
with one influential woman who has been linked to State House before.

State House has however taken the trouble more than once to deny
in the Press that the said woman was in any way associated to the
President’s family.

Raila was to go the whole hog later by dragging State itself into the
mess with claims that the two men had in fact been to the country’s
most important address. State house didn’t take this allegation with
the trademark silence. Instead the PPS fired off a prompt statement
warning Raila to desist from dragging State House in the mercenary
saga. By making public copies of the passports of the two men,
Raila had clearly yanked the cover off the two foreigners for no
sooner were the documents in the public domain than the men were out
facing the cameras and telling their side of the story. They didn’t
waste time sucking Raila into the labyrinth making it even more
complicated. Suddenly Raila was no longer a concerned spectator. He
was a major actor. According to the two Armenians, they had met Mr.
Odinga and his fellow ODM luminary Mr. Kalonzo Muyoka sometimes
last year.

And no it was just a meeting. They had done business with the two .

The ODM leaders had apparently asked for some funds towards the
referendum campaigns and later a vote of confidence in Kibaki’s
Government. The two claimed they refused to give Raila and Kalonzo
the money but loaned Raila some 108 million shillings on humanitarian
grounds. The LDP leader, they alleged, was in a financial fix over
a matter concerning a girlfriend.

As expected, Raila and Kalonzo were swift to rubbish the Armenian’s
story even as the latter admitted having met the them in unclear
circumstances. Raila was, however, adamant that he had never met the
alleged mercenaries. The former ministers have had to record statements
with the police, Raila for the second time and Kalonzo for the first
time. The game of swapping blame has been on for the past week. While
Raila and Co. are accusing the Government of retaining the mercenaries
to do their dirty work like the attack on the media and assassinations,
the government wants to turn the tables on Raila and Kalonzo.

They have been quick to seize the two men’s claims that they knew the
LDP leaders on a first-name basis as prove that they were connected
to the Armenians. A group of Government of |National Unity (GNU) MPs
have accused Raila of using the mercenary claims as a red herring to
divert attention from the investigations into the Ndungu Land report in
which Raila’s name appears in connection to the controversial Kisumu
Molasses Plant. On the other hand the opposition side is suggesting
that the whole saga is a smokescreen to divert people’s attention
from the Anglo Leasing Scandal.

While the “mercenary” have become so hot a potato that no one wants
to hold, so far the Government story seems to have the widest holes.

Most leads appear to be pointing to the direction of the Government.

The Monday drama at JKIA where one of the Armenians claimed to have
just arrived in the country to clear his name turned that it may have
been just that- a well choreographed drama. It later emerged that
there were no documentary evidence to show that the man had used a
Kenya Airways flight as he had claimed. Then the story of the private
jet came in to do damage control but it was too late.

Another glaring hole is the embarrassing failure by a group of police
officers to act on the two after visiting their Runda residence on
Tuesday. After trying to obtain statements from the one of the men in
vain, the officers were reportedly ordered to call off the operation
by a senior officer. The division in the police force over this matter
has also been out in the open with the Police commissioner ordering
an investigation