Kenyans warned over deals on Libyan assets due to fraud risks
What you need to know:
- Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho says his office has warned the public because there is no stable government in Tripoli to authorise the sale.
- On Tuesday, the Kenyan government published a notice, warning the public against transacting on any property owned by Libya without first getting information from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
- “Any transaction relating to the said properties must be expressly approved by both the Government of the State of Libya and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.” Any transactions done by any other party, the government warned, would be invalid.
Kenyans have been warned against entering into deals involving Libyan assets in the country.
Fraudsters are reportedly eyeing assets owned by the Libyan government locally, following the turmoil that has rocked the North African country.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho says his office has warned the public because there is no stable government in Tripoli to authorise the sale.
“When there is a problem with government, very many people will try tricks. That is what we are preventing,” he told the Nation on phone.
“It is not that someone was trying to sell; it is only that because there isn’t a government in place, some people will try such things and we have seen that before.”
On Tuesday, the Kenyan government published a notice, warning the public against transacting on any property owned by Libya without first getting information from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The notice mentioned land, buildings and “other assets belonging to the State of Libya and located within the Republic of Kenya” and stated that none of them was on sale.
INVALID
“It has come to the attention of the Government of Kenya that there might be fraudsters who are intent on interfering with some or all the properties belonging to the Government of the State of Libya,” said the warning from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Any transaction relating to the said properties must be expressly approved by both the Government of the State of Libya and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.”
Any transactions done by any other party, the government warned, would be invalid.
Libyan assets in Kenya include the Libyan embassy premises as well as business ventures managed by the Libyan Investment Authority.
By 2012, the authority controlled about $66 billion worth of Libyan government overseas investments. A portion of this was frozen by the United Nations in 2011.
In Kenya, Libya had interests in oil, hospitality, engineering and telecommunications. Most of them though, survived largely on cash injections from Tripoli.
But ever since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, it is not clear who was who has been controlling these ventures in the absence of a stable government.
