DCI CONTINUE TO HOLD WETANGULA WARRANT OF ARREST OVER GOLD SCAM

On 19th June 2020, a senior Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer responding to an inquiry by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the sleuths were in the process of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and Nyaribari Chache legislator Zaheer Jhanda over a 4.6-ton gold scam.
DCI who were keen to appease an irked Al Nahyan had obtained a warrant of arrest for both Jhanda and Wetangula.
This is after Sheikh Rashid Bin Thani Bin Juma Al Maktoum had written to the then Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Administration Fred Matiang’I requesting for immediate action.
“We are addressing this letter to request your immediate action regarding the shipment of gold under our company’s name Zlivia which is being detained by your authorities in Kenya” Sheikh Maktoum wrote.
In the letter referenced DCI/IB/SEC/4/3/12/VOL.IV/154 addressed to Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a DCI officer then in charge of the Investigations Bureau revealed that they were in the process of bringing in two key suspects for questioning.
“Our attention has been drawn to the official correspondence through your office from the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the 2018 Gold Scandal that involved a number of Kenyans. The office of the DCI has been working around the clock collecting evidence and questioning witnesses. We would like to assure the UAE Government and His Highness Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan that we have moved with swift expediency and as a result we are in the process of bringing in two key suspects for further questioning. The below individuals are in pursuit: Zaheer Jhandla, Moses Masika Wetangula. We hereby attach copies of the warrant of arrest for the suspects for ease of reference,” the DCI letter signed by John Kariuki for Director of Criminal Investigations reads in part.
Although we couldn’t find the latest on the scam from DCI, the file reportedly remains s open pending directions.
A staggering 4.6 tonnes of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province was supposedly transported by road to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The buyer of the consignment was the Dubai-based company Z Livia FZC (‘Zlivia’) was represented by Mohammad Ali Zandi Goharizzi.
It was alleged that in order to facilitate the movement of the consignment through Kenya, Zandi enlisted the aid of Moses Wetang’ula, then Bungoma senator and businessman Zaheer Jhanda.
Jhanda’s role was to ‘assist ZLIVIA with all documentation, including payment of any taxes, customs and levies relating to the purchase of the commodity for which he was to receive US$14.3 million in exchange for his services.
Jhanda was also incorporated as a director of the company and was also received a 12 percent shareholding stake. The deal was first exposed to public scrutiny in late September 2018 when DRC media reported that the supposed consignment had been seized by customs officers at JKIA.
Several months later Wetang’ula allegedly travelled to Dubai, where he met with Zlivia company’s manager Ali Zandi and requested US$2 million supposedly demanded by a senior Kenyan cabinet secretary to secure the release of the consignment.
Zandi flew to Nairobi in January 2019, where, after some negotiation, he handed over US$700 000 in cash to Jhanda and Wetang’ula and later that month, Zandi was taken to meet an impostor of the cabinet secretary imposter who assured him that the consignment would be released.
A frustrated Zandi left Kenya even after he had made payments to various participants in the scam totaling at least US$2 million for 4.6 tons of gold that had never existed in the first place.
The scandal gained renewed traction when an audio recording of a conversation purportedly between Wetang’ula and Zandi leaked to the media. Sheikh Maktoum, Zandi reportedly told Wetang’ula, had run out of patience with the endless delays.
In April 2020, Kenyatta and Odinga were summoned to a meeting with Sheikh Maktoum in Dubai, where the emir reportedly demanded their assistance in releasing the (non-existent) consignment.
Wetangula and Jhanda have previously denied any wrongdoing in the Zlivia affair with Wetang’ula, now National Assembly Speaker calling it a ‘non-issue’ while Jhanda claimed he had been hired only to provide advisory services and not to verify the authenticity of the gold.