Don’t allow our courts to mess up justice for the ‘Jersey Island Two’

He can run, but he can’t hide. That is the famous quote attributed to legendary heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis when asked how he would handle a faster, nimbler, opponent.

There is precious few places to hide in a boxing ring, as Billy Conn found out in that 1941 defeat against one of the greatest gentlemen to grace the brutal sport.

That quote from the barely literate pugilist has now became a worldwide staple in signalling determination to relentlessly pursue mobsters, terrorists, and the authors of mass murder, genocide, grand corruption, and other high crimes.

In the 1970s, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh updated the quote in the classic Downpressor Man song that warned dictators and tyrants that they would have nowhere to hide and nowhere to run when the day of judgement came.

Borrowing liberally from the Bible, the reggae legends warned that Downpressor Man would run to the sea, but the sea would be boiling, and he would run to the rocks, but the rocks would be melting.

The song ends on the note that there would be no one to bribe, too, when the day came.

How apt for us in the Global Village of today. I am not talking here about our Ocampo Six, presently awaiting their fate before judges at the International Criminal Court, but about some tiny Migingo in the cold climes of the British Isles known principally for its cows and hospitality towards dirty money.

The money laundry that is the Island of Jersey has issued arrest warrants against two very prominent Kenyans — former Kenya Power and Lighting Company boss Samuel Gichuru and Nambale MP Chrysanthus (I have always wondered whether that name came from some flower) Okemo, who is also a former Energy and Finance minister.

They are accused of using banks on the island to launder proceeds of corrupt dealings from the controversial independent power producers contracts of a decade ago.

With an area of just 116 square kilometres (14 by 8km) and a population of 87,000, Jersey is hardly a dot on the world map. Translocated into Kenya, it would hardly make a sub-location under some village chief.

Village that it is, it is actually led by a chief called the Bailiff, who combines the roles of head of the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary.

That is the fellow who presided over the matter that decided that Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo are required to help with investigations.

Jersey has given us not only the Jersey cows that are common in our dairy industry, but also a safe and secure location for illicit funds.

The tiny hamlet that global warming might one day sink into the Atlantic has 45 banks and more than 33,000 registered companies, most of which do not do any business on the island but are simply repositories for dirty money.

Those tax heavens and money laundries generally operate on “no questions asked” policies, but every so often, a matter will come up that spurs investigations and seizures.

That is what seems to have happened with the funds currently under investigation.

If it is true that kind of money was stashed away from corrupt Kenya Power contracts, that will go a long way towards explaining why Kenyans continue to pay extortionate rates on their power bills, for the funds eventually must be passed on to the consumer.

Of course Mr Gichuru and Mr Okemo must be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise. This is why they must be keen to take the next flight out to prove their innocence on the little island that is hardly the size of their land holdings.

In fact, the issue of the Kenyan political and judicial system determining whether the warrants from Jersey are valid should not arise because the two men should be more than anxious to volunteer appearance before the Bailiff.

After all, it is only in Kenya that judges routinely issue orders clearing suspects even before they have been tried. Sometimes they even bar the police from investigating criminal offences and grant the suspects immunity from prosecution.

Kenyan investors in Jersey surely would not want their reputations sullied thus.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com