We look East because getting a bribe is easy
What you need to know:
- Enemy: The real reason African leaders like doing business with China is rather obvious. China is too willing to bribe to strike business deals.
- China simply sees bribing African leaders, including Kenyans, as part of their business practice.
The raging national and continental debate triggered by the cut-throat competition between the West and China over Africa is mostly seen through a false and self-serving prism.
It is too often and falsely characterised as a scramble for the resources of Africa. Some have argued persistently that China offers the better deal. This is an important debate that needs appreciation and analysis through proper perspectives.
The successful America-Africa summit hosted by President Barack Obama in the past week seems to take the competition a notch higher and in the right direction.
America and the West seem quite serious in re-engaging Africa and more robustly.
The summit has greatly succeeded in refocusing the debate both from a historical and value driven perspectives. The resource paradigm in the debate should thus be seen as a small factor in the wider picture of where the true interest of Africa lies. Is it with the West or is it with China?
History, shared values and who between the two offers a better and fairer deal to Africa are all popular narratives.
LEGITIMATE BUSINESS PRACTICE
The real reason African leaders like doing business with China is rather obvious.
China is too willing to bribe in order to strike business deals in Africa. The West, on the other hand, doesn’t bribe.
And African leaders see China as more attractive because the Chinese culturally, politically and economically see bribing African leaders as a legitimate business practice.
It does not mean Western business interests never used to bribe to get lucrative contracts. They used to. Big time!
But things have changed in both America and Western Europe. Through a raft of anti-corruption legislations and a very robust enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by America, bribing foreign governments to win business contracts has become a very dangerous enterprise.
Let us see how America has contributed to promote Kenya Government business with the Chinese.
When the former Communications Commission of Kenya awarded the second GSM licence on or about January 28, 2000 to a local consortium involving two French companies, the American Justice Department conducted one of the most expansive and sweeping investigations.
It zeroed in on the French Company, Alcatel-Lucent SA. It investigated its activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Africa, seven countries, including Kenya, became the focus for the Justice Department investigations.
After obtaining all the incriminating evidence in the three continents, the Justice Department filed a case against Alcatel-Lucent SA in Florida. The charges were explosive.
In Kenya, the investigators unearthed an intricate network of companies and middlemen that were used by the French company to bribe top officials of the Kenya Government in the second GSM licence scandal.
A cool $20 million (Sh1.7 billion) was paid as bribe. The principals, the recipients and all middlemen in this bribe scandal were unearthed.
When the evidence was presented against top officials of Alcatel-Lucent SA, they buckled and surrendered. A fine from $92 million to $173,160,000 was paid by Alcatel-Lucent SA to escape trial and conviction.
Top businessmen, Kanu leaders and their sidekicks escaped criminal prosecution by a whisker.
VALUABLE LESSON
But the political elite learnt a valuable lesson and so did Western companies.
The lesson was that Western countries will investigate and prosecute robustly any corrupt deals involving their citizens and foreign companies.
Kenyan leaders, following their close shave, made a solemn promise never to do business with Western companies.
So when the Kibaki Administration pursued the “look East” policy as a new economic doctrine, it was not because China offered better business sense to Kenya. It was simply because of the risks involved in doing business with Western companies.
China, on the other hand, simply saw bribing African leaders, including Kenyans, as part of their business practice. So the tilt to China is not informed by either doctrinal or economic rationalisation.
Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi is the publisher, Nairobi Law Monthly. [email protected]
