LIFT SECRECY LID OFF THE MYSTERIOUS ARMENIAN DUO
By Lumiti Cedric Khabuchi

Kenya Times, Kenya
March 27 2006

MERCENARIES or no mercenaries, it cannot be wished away that this
government is juggling with the security of its citizens. Those charged
with ensuring our security owe Kenyans an explanation regarding this
Armenian saga. Any wonder that the whole issue has now been narrowed
down to politics as usual with its attendant blame game as the whole
country keeps guessing what really is happening?

It is naive to assume these are ordinary illegal immigrants. It
is more persuading given what has been going on to conclude they
are well connected individuals with strong ties to people in power
or close to those in power which explains the essentially lukewarm
reaction the government gave what started as a rumour that strange
individuals were suspiciously operating in the country.

Instead of closely following the leads given by Raila Odinga, including
the exact location of the said ‘mercenaries’, the government instead
surprisingly, trashed the information as untrue and a fabrication with
conflicting responses from the police commissioner and the CID chief
both of whom ironically are supposed to coordinate investigations.

Push has now come to shove and anxious Kenyans are demanding an
explanation detailing who really is hosting these liberally ‘golden
visitors’. With conflicting statements from confused state officials
streaming in, it remains to be seen how a government that always
seems not to know what to do will act given that time is running out
and the whole issue getting blown out of proportion. For the minister
in charge of immigration to differ with Kenya Airways officials over
what plane allegedly flew in one of the foreigners is a case of the
right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

To start with and perhaps in characteristic manner, the president
has not found it worthwhile commenting on this very critical issue
touching on state security despite being the custodian of the safety
of his subjects.

We have watched in awe as the government spokesman who happens to
play the role of spin doctor for the blunders of his bosses rubbished
the allegations as ‘uwongo na upuzi mtupu’. Somebody please tell Dr
Alfred Mutua that the ills being committed by these septuagenarian
pensioners will remain to haunt him since he still has a long future
to take care of.

It is startling that suspicious foreigners can enter into the country,
be given state security, chauffeured around in government cars and
accorded state honors and five star accommodation presumably paid for
by the taxpayer who is not told who they are and to what their mission
is. It pains that despite paying heavily for our extravagantly pampered
government while the rest of Kenyans survive on a shoe string budget,
the ingrates can still bring in strangers who threaten our security
and still expect us just to smile it away.

If really the government was unaware of the Artur brothers, the first
thing it would have done would be to put them in custody while going
on with investigations to ascertain their mission. This was not done
and the two still go about their unknown business with impunity. It
is worth noting that Artur Margaryan is the only individual who is
not a government official but uses a ‘GK’ vehicle.

If really the said Orange Democratic Movement leaders had deals
with the two ‘golden brothers, then it could give the beleaguered
government a leeway of netting its harshest critics in the name of
Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka at last.

I refuse to buy the line that these people held talks with the Orange
luminaries. The talk of loaning Odinga more than Sh100 million does not
add up. Which serious businessman would lend a stranger on the first
meeting such a colossal sum of money without any paper work and not
forgetting that the amount was in cash? I mean how serious was Odinga’s
problem with the alleged girlfriend to warrant such huge sums of money?

I also have a feeling that in terms of money spent during the
referendum campaigns, the whole country saw what happened and which
side was spending government funds to bribe voters. We have not
forgotten Kiraitu Murungi’s statement that the government war chest
for the exercise was meant to shake every corner of the country.

Kenyans are now an enlightened lot and had already known that the
infamous Banana constitution was unworkable and a government project
as Murungi said. I, therefore, will continue treating the allegations
against ODM leaders as cheap propaganda to shift attention by a
government cornered in the middle of a crisis.

Coming hot on the heels of a thuggish midnight raid on the Standard
group by hooded government agents that left a terrified staff and a
trail of destruction ranging from disabling computers, looted mobile
phones, burning newspapers to shutting down the group’s TV station
for more than 12 hours. Surprisingly non-Kenyan looking individuals
were spotted in the raid. We all know that our police force has
no Caucasians and therefore the demand to know who the white man
who was commanding the raiders was. It is not by coincidence that
just around the same time two strangers have been forced from their
hideouts by our hawk-eyed opposition only to come and claim that they
are businessmen. This government should remember that the media was
there long before they came to power and they will leave it there on
return to the opposition benches which they greatly miss.

My fear is that from the look of these expensive men, their mode of
dressing, sly disposition and golden jewellery while we do not know
their business, they might either be international criminals of the
‘Carlos the Jackal’ type or drug dealers on a transit mission. At a
time when we as a nation have a cool Sh.6.4 billion worth of cocaine
in our stores and authorities who have been foot-dragging to speed
up the case and bring the concerned to book, we might as well not
rule out the possibility of the second option.

It might not be a coincidence that these two men have appeared at
a time when there are spirited call from both the locals and the
United Nations Office on drugs and Crime for the destruction of the
drug haul. The drugs must be weighed and certified packet by packet
before destruction. For a country reeling on the pangs of starvation,
official corruption, political blackmail and aid freeze, this is just
another of the string of worries the common Kenyan has to live with.

Any issue of national importance that is not well explained to the
masses leaves room for all kinds of speculation.