Gaddafi’s unfinished commercial mask that became his face in Kenya

Muammar Gaddafi’s green-coloured flag no longer flaps atop the five-storey Libyan Embassy building in Nairobi’s Loita Street. But still across the road is Laico Regency Hotel — the last signature project that Gaddafi had hoped to use in Kenya as he pushed his dream of a united Africa.

It was a mask; and by the time Gaddafi was assassinated before he achieved his dream, the multi-million Libyan investment mask had become his face.

That mask still stands as a solid citadel of Gaddafi’s push for his vision to black Africa echoing the words of George Orwell: “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”

Last week, the BBC returned to Sirte in Libya to look for Gaddafi’s golden pistol that was seized by rebels moments before he was assassinated. The pistol is not the only item that continues to attract attention. Nay.

Across Africa, if one dares to check, are many other grandiose totems that litter the continent: The multi-million-shilling Uganda National Mosque, which can hold 30,000 worshippers and the third-largest in Africa; Hotel de l’Amitie in Bamako, Mali; Timber concessions in DR Congo, and RASCOM, Africa’s communications satellite among others.

They remain symbols of Gaddafi’s halcyon days before he was chased out of power and finally cornered in a filthy storm drain where he was smoked out, beaten and shot on October 21, 2011.

Gaddafi had hoped to spread his might into Kenya, and several other African countries, using Libya Arab African Investment Company, known by its acronym Laico. That way, he could spread his financial tentacles across the continent in return for political backing.

BEARDED MAN

The man who did the initial contact with the Gaddafi regime was the late Alex Muriithi, a burly and bearded man who liked to introduce himself as Alex Kibaki. Alex was Kibaki’s nephew and was central in the organisation of Narc as the party’s director of elections.

The Kibaki victory placed him at the centre of power and that is how he arrived in Tripoli in 2003 with a letter from State House.

Muriithi’s arrival coincided with major geo-political shifts in Libya. Gaddafi had done a diplomatic somersault in 2003 by agreeing to surrender weapons of mass destruction in return to restoration of full diplomatic relations by Western states which had slapped pariah status on the Maghreb nation.

(George Bush once called Gaddafi a ‘mad dog’)

While the West loathed Gaddafi for many years, he was a darling to many African nations ever since he overthrew King Idriss on the morning of September 1, 1969. He not only funded many of Africa’s liberation movements but was a strong voice in the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

During the post-Kenyatta years, Gaddafi and Moi had fallen apart to an extent that Moi accused Libya of plotting to topple him and training guerrillas. In 1982, Moi outmanoeuvred Gaddafi and prevented him from becoming the OAU chairman as the summit that was supposed to install Gaddafi lacked a quorum. As a result, Moi was made OAU chairman for two consecutive years.

In Nairobi, the Jamahriya News Agency had started publishing a pro-Gaddafi publication by the name Voice of Africa. Although originally thought to be a pan-African publication, it scared the establishment when it started writing on local politics. The man behind it was Libyan journalist, Hadi Mohamed Dabaa, who was JANA’s editor in Nairobi.

LOFTY IDEAS

The government then banned Voice of Africa, but Dabaa stayed for a while to operate his tea and coffee export business in Nairobi.

Those were the eighties — and by 1987 the Libyan embassy was closed after its ambassador was accused of using SONU (Students Organisation of Nairobi University) leaders in espionage.

Those arrested in the crackdown included chairman Wafula Buke (now Cord Director of Political Affairs), and Kaberere Njenga. The others, Miguna Miguna, Munoru Nderi and Munameza Muleji escaped to Tanzania and Libya.

It was not until Kibaki’s victory that Kenya started courting Gaddafi once more – and that is how Muriithi came into the picture with his business delegation and some lofty ideas.

After the UN sanctions imposed in 1988 following the Lockerbie bombing were lifted in September 2003, a chance to clinch deals with the oil-rich nation just appeared.

Gaddafi was then courting African governments and power brokers as part of his return.

In March 2003, Libya had surprised everyone after they submitted an official request to join Comesa at its eighth Heads of State Summit. A chance to do business had been opened and all the Comesa nations agreed to let Gaddafi in — after all, he had the petro-dollars.

Gaddafi combined this commercial entry with politics and was able to use his influence to purchase choice service stations in 2007 when Mobil Oil Kenya wished to sell its assets.

That is how Tamoil Africa Holdings Limited, which was fully owned by the government of Libya through the Libyan-African Investment Portfolio (LAP), bid to acquire the retail assets of the American oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil, which was exiting the retail market in Kenya to concentrate on exploration and drilling.

A delegation of top companies led by the US-Libya Business Association visited Tripoli in December 2006 and were briefed on $25 billion in investment opportunities.

In February 2007, Rex Tillerson, the global chairman of ExxonMobil, visited Tripoli to attend the signing of an energy exploration venture. It was here that the decision to sell ExxonMobil Kenyan stations to Libyans was made.

This included the Mobil’s network of 64 retail service stations, a blending plant for lubricants in Mombasa, the aviation business, terminals at Mombasa and Nairobi and fuel depots in Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu.

LAP INVESTMENT FUND

Thus, the first of Gaddafi’s projects in Kenya was the Libya Oil Kenya Limited, whose flagship were petrol stations branded Oilibya. This remained one of the best-known Libyan investments, a direct result of Gaddafi’s $5 billion LAP investment fund.

When it was conceptualised, Libya Oil Kenya Ltd was supposed to be the distribution arm of Libya’s oil wealth to Kenya. But this did not happen and the much it did was be a retail outlet.

In between, Gaddafi invited President Kibaki for a State visit to Tripoli in June 2007.

From then on, Libyan diplomats always caught the ear of President Kibaki whenever he went for AU meetings and it was no wonder that Kibaki was among the dignitaries invited when Gaddafi inaugurated the Gaddafi National Mosque in Kampala, Uganda, in March 2008.

Kenya was hoping that it would be able to tap into the $5 billion investment plan in Africa that Gaddafi had put aside.

Among the projects that President Kibaki discussed with the Libyan government included Tamoil’s undertaking to upgrade the Kenya Oil Refinery and construction of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas import storage and distribution facility in Mombasa.

That is when the ministry of Energy silently sent its Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike to Tripoli to sign the Tamoil deal.

Libya had also hoped to build a pipeline between Kenya and Uganda and another to supply five countries with oil products from a Ugandan refinery.

It was a big political dream, dreamt in a pragmatic way. Time had changed and Gaddafi was now no longer the bully of 1970s and 1980s when he used his oil wealth, according to CIA Fact book, to expand his ideology to black Africa and beyond supporting emerging subversives.

But what caught Kenya’s eyes was the sale of the former Grand Regency to the Libyans. Ironically, the hotel was associated with Kamlesh Pattni, the man who has been leading “cultural elders and youth leaders” to Tripoli to pay homage to Gaddafi.

Laico, an acronym for Libya Arab African Investment Company, turned into a hot potato after it was sold with the then Finance minister Amos Kimunya publicly accused of giving false information to a parliamentary committee about the same.

FEDERAL RESERVE ACCOUNT

Mr Kimunya had first insisted that Grand Regency had not been sold even when there was evidence from the Libyan’s local lawyers, Wetang’ula Adan and Makokha Advocates, that they had received a deposit of $4.5 million which had been deposited in CBK’s Federal Reserve Account in New York.

One of the questions that many asked was whether Grand Regency was under-valued and if, yes, could it have fetched more? For several days figures were bandied around ranging between Sh7 billion and Sh4 billion as the value of the hotel.

That, going by expert valuation, was grossly misleading for a single hotel could not be equal to the entire Serena chain which was worth Sh7.6 billion at the moment.

The battle was reduced to ping-pong between Lands minister James Orengo and Mr Kimunya — each squaring one another for different reasons while playing to the gallery.

Finally, it was Mr Kimunya who was forced to step aside despite his “I would rather die” bravado.

As it emerged later, the idea to sell the hotel to Libyans had been floated by NSIS boss Maj-General Michael Gichangi who had asked Central Bank of Kenya to make a deal with Kamlesh Pattni and sell the Grand Regency Hotel.

Why it is the Director-General of the National Intelligence Security Service (NSIS) — a man who reported directly to the President — became the first person to come up with the idea of selling the hotel to Libyans was rather curious.

As people tussled on the sale, Maj-Gen Gichangi remained the only person who could shed light, not on the sale of the hotel to a Libyan company, but on the underlying story.

A commission that was appointed to probe the sale did not make any headway. Neither Central Bank nor Mr Pattni were truthful on how they started negotiations.

CBKs position was that it all started when they received a call from Protocal Office and were informed about an impending visit by the Libyan ambassador on September 11, 2007. Pattni said he first heard about the proposed sale after Kibaki’s visit to Tripoli in feigned ignorance of a letter he wrote to his advocates on September 13, 2007 instructing them to commence negotiations with the Libyans.

Interestingly, it was Pattni’s lawyers who incorporated Libyan Arab Investment Company Kenya Limited.

“The speed at which the company was incorporated is strikingly similar to the speed at which the hotel was transferred,” said the commission probing the sale.

While registering the document, the two shareholders were listed as Kenyans but when CBK entered into agreement for the sale of Grand Regency, they turned out to be Libyans.

Today, these Libyan investments no longer attract the attention that they did when Gaddafi was alive. Libya has also descended into chaos, fractured and attracting many Islamic State radicals.

There are two rival groups – one in Tripoli and another in Tobruk. Both share a common lie — pretence to rule.

In several African countries, Gaddafi’s totems still stand while back at home, his signature projects are rubbles of twisted metals.

Kamau is a Senior Writer with NMG. Email: [email protected]; @johnkamau1