Congolese military had withheld 8 million US dollars that was due to be repatriated on the suspicion of a money laundering scheme.
It has now emerged that this was the reason behind Kenya Airways (KQ) employees being detained by DRC military intelligence.
Prime Cabinet Secretary while appearing before a parliamentary committee looking into the intrigues behind the detention that did not only escalate into a diplomatic standoff between Kenya and Congo but a shame to the country, clarified that Trust Merchant Bank a subsidiary of KCB was repatriating ‘retired’ currency to the Reserve Bank in the US.
Mudavadi further added that Kenya doesn’t tolerate money laundering and cannot allow its vessels to be used in the crime.
While Mudavadi’s assertions are carefully weighed for diplomatic reasons not to show the real behind the scenes, the DRC military wasn’t convinced with the bank’s flimsy excuse and was convinced this was not just a usual repatriation of cash but had high suspicions that this cash was being laundered to be repatriated back to the country to fund rebels who’ve been causing havoc in the country with thousands dead and daily chaos being inflicted.
This come at a time when Kenyan banking system has been under scrutiny for allegedly facilitating money laundering for warlords, KCB has been accused before of laundering millions of dollars from South Sudan for its perennial warlords, naturally, they’ve denied the allegations but there are cases where courts in Nairobi had to freeze questioned accounts.
Grey List
Kenya is currently is currently placed on a global financial watchdog’s “gray list” due to its shortcomings in tackling illicit financial flows.
The Financial Action Task Force asked Kenya to supervise crypto assets, improve the quality of financial intelligence and increase prosecution of money laundering cases.
Kenya is with South Africa and Nigeria in the list just as President William Ruto tries to lure investors to the East African nation and may increase the government’s foreign-funding costs and weigh on trade flows.
While Kenya struggles to clear its name from the shame list, suspicions activities such as this of KQ and KCB subsidiary goes to undo the anti-money laundering measures being put by the government.
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