Minister defends embassy purchase

The government has denied fraud allegations surrounding the purchase of a building housing the Kenyan embassy in Japan.

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula on Thursday declared the Sh1.5 billion purchase of the two buildings in Tokyo — a chancery and the ambassador’s residence — a clean deal and submitted what he said were a detailed trail of the transactions that took place.

The matter appeared to place Mr Wetangula on a collision course with Lands minister James Orengo who he accused of informing the House committee that he was kept in the dark when officials from his ministry were involved in the transactions.

Mr Wetangula had called a press conference to give the ministry’s response to allegations of corruption in the media and by the Parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs that have surrounded the purchase.

The government, on June 30, 2009, bought two 20-year-old stone buildings in Tokyo at a cost of Sh1.524 billion.

It has been alleged that the property should not have cost more than Sh800 million. Defending the purchase, Mr Wetangula said the ministry officers were not guilty of any wrong doing and presented his account of how the transactions were carried out.

He said Kenya’s ambassador to Japan at the time, Mr Denis Awori, oversaw all the transactions that led to the purchase even though when the deal was sealed, he had left the service.

He said a government team of officers from ministries of Foreign Affairs, Treasury and Lands was sent to Tokyo in early 2009 to evaluate seven plots that had been identified by Mr Awori and found out that they were not suitable for an embassy and the envoy’s residence.

After ruling out the plots, he said, the government team, chaired by Mr Awori, started negotiations to buy the plot owned by Mr Nobuo Kuriyama who offered it at Sh1.65 billion. Subsequent negotiations, he said, brought down the price to Sh1.524 billion.

He criticised committee chairman Aden Keynan for issuing statements without consulting the ministry.