500 charities shut and accounts frozen

From left: Mr Henry Ochido, NGO Board deputy director, Mr Fazul Mahamed, the executive director, and Ms Juliana Akinyi, the head of operations. Police are investigating a non-governmental organisation that may have defrauded dozens of companies and individuals of millions of shillings. PHOTO | RAY OCHIENG |

What you need to know:

  • Another 501 were not so lucky: they were shut down, their accounts frozen and assets are likely to be seized.
  • But the list has all the four affiliates of the Doctors without Borders (MSF), which is involved in medical charity in slums and the refugee camps around the country. They are, MSF- Switzerland, MSF-Belgium, MSF-France and its Dutch affiliate, MSF-Holland.
  • MSF-Kenya Tuesday issued a statement saying it had complied with all provisions of the law and that there was a “misunderstanding” with the NGO Board.

An international charity which has led the fight against Ebola in West Africa is among those in danger of being closed down in a rough crackdown on non-governmental organisations by the Jubilee government.

Even the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, a charity run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is in danger of being closed, apparently for not following accounting rules.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), with offices in Switzerland, France and Belgium, and Liverpool VCT, whose founder died in a Kenya Airways plane accident in West Africa, were given 21 days to comply with the law or face closure.

The organisation takes volunteer doctors where no other would dare, such as in countries at war or facing disease outbreaks, as has happened in West Africa.

In all, 12 international NGOs of good standing and with an annual income of more than Sh500 million, were given 21 days to account for their finances or be shut down.

SHUT DOWN

Another 501 were not so lucky: they were shut down, their accounts frozen and assets are likely to be seized.
It is the worst crackdown on the charity sector in Kenya’s history.

Fifteen NGOs, based mainly in northern Kenya and the Coast, were accused of funding terrorism and banned.

Names of the 15 were not revealed but the government said investigations were ongoing to determine whether their officials should be prosecuted. Their assets were also seized and bank accounts frozen.

NGO regulatory officials claimed that the action followed local and international investigations.

Those banned are said to have received Sh7.3 billion in donations between 2010 and 2013, but did not file audited accounts for some of the years.

Among those required to file returns are Concern Worldwide, which has been in Kenya since 2002 and deals with healthcare services, food relief and education for the poor.

It also includes Adventist Development and Relief Agency International which is involved in poverty eradication and emergency relief.

Its local affiliate ADRA-Kenya Tuesday said in a statement it was in the government’s good books. However, ADRA-Somalia, which runs its Somali operations from Nairobi is listed. When contacted, a spokesman for ADRA-Somalia promised to issue a statement today.

But the list has all the four affiliates of the Doctors without Borders (MSF), which is involved in medical charity in slums and the refugee camps around the country. They are, MSF- Switzerland, MSF-Belgium, MSF-France and its Dutch affiliate, MSF-Holland.

MSF-Kenya on Tuesday issued a statement saying it had complied with all provisions of the law and that there was a “misunderstanding” with the NGO Board.

“We can confirm that MSF has complied with all reporting obligations of the Kenyan government under the regulators, NGO Board as required by the law,” it said. “We are currently in contact with the board to clear up any misunderstanding.”

On its Kenyan portal, MSF says it has a total of 789 members of staff, who are mainly involved in medical emergency, administration and running health clinics. Forty-six of them are expatriates.

In 2011, the year the government says MSF failed to file audited accounts, the charity says it raised €621,000 (Sh69,552,000) to be used for immunisation, running clinics, treating children, offering other medical services and paying salaries.

The board also sent a warning to Water for Life, an agency involved in supplying water in arid areas, FH Association, Centre for Health Solutions, a local NGO, LVCT Health, Technoserve Kenya, and VSF-DZP, a veterinary version of MSF that is mainly involved in helping pastoralists.

The basis of the warning is the NGO Coordination Act, which requires that NGOs send audited accounts to the board as a condition for being allowed to continue operating.

According to the law, one may be jailed for to up to one and a half years or be fined Sh50,000, or both, for running a deregistered organisation. And a person convicted under this law can be barred from running any other registered charity for 10 years.

HUMONGOUS AMOUNTS

On the 15 organisations the government claims are funding claims, the board claimed the NGOs have “humongous” amounts of money in their accounts.

“The board has already de-registered the 510 organisations for non-compliance, frozen their bank accounts and is now repossessing their assets with a view to re-distributing the same to other NGOs pursuing similar charitable objectives,” said the board executive director, Mr Fazul Mahamed.

The crackdown is likely to put the government on a collision course with the charitable organisations which politicians have been accused of being used by foreign powers to undermine the Jubilee government leadership.

Others have also been accused of coaching witnesses for the International Criminal Court in order to “fix” President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto who have been accused of crimes against humanity following the 2007 elections. Mr Kenyatta’s charges have been dropped.

Other charitable organisations have been accused of enriching themselves with donor money.
Yesterday, the Mr Mohamed said investigations had revealed that four of the 15 charitable organisations possibly funded the August 7, 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in which hundreds of people were killed.

“It has come to the attention of the board that some NGOs have been used in criminal activities including as conduits of terrorism financing in Kenya and in the Horn of Africa,”

“The board has de-registered these organisations, frozen their accounts and forwarded information on them to relevant government security agencies for appropriate action,” he at a press conference at the board’s offices Tuesday.

Mr Mohamed, however, declined to name the organisations said to be aiding terror saying that revealing them would “interfere with investigations”.
The NGOs have mostly been operating in the Coast and North Eastern Kenya which have both borne the brunt of terrorism.

The board has also revoked work permits for the expatriates working in the de-registered charitable organisations, said Mr Mahamed, adding that the regulatory body would carry out an extensive audit to “weed out” other NGOs in the next three months.

He said extensive investigations locally and abroad helped unearth the “rogue NGOs” suspected of financing criminal elements adding that after investigations are complete, the officials will face prosecution.

Investigations showed that once the donor gives the money to the NGOs, they in turn transfer huge amounts to accounts where terror suspects access the amount, he said.

Donors were also put on notice with the board official saying they would be held accountable if monies they give are used in financing criminal activities.
“Donors must also be held accountable and we will also require them to give us the list of the NGOs they have funded and for what purposes,” said the executive director.

There are more than 3,000 registered NGOs in the country, operating accounts worth billions of shillings, according to the NGO Co-ordinating board official.