Ksh1.1 Billion Covid-19 Donation: James Mwangi and Equity Bank Hidden History

Equity CEO James Mwangi. Mr Mwangi said that he will lead equity bank for life in 2019

Equity Bank is said to have donated Sh1.1 billion shillings to the Kenya Covid-19 Fund.

The bank’s MD James Mwangi contributed Sh300 million, Mastercard Foundation through the bank contributed Ksh500 million whereas Equity Foundation gifted Ksh300 million. All of which totals to Ksh1.1. billion in the fight against Covid-19.

The bank which has been accused severally of alleged withdrawing funds from customer accounts has often bee trusted with many cash transfer works in the country owing to its vast network of branches and supposedly cheaper fees.

In 2007, the story of Goldenberg roped in the management of newly founded Equity Bank.

The then Member of Parliament (MP) for Khwisero Constituency Mr Julius Arunga had questioned the integrity of James Mwangi who was at one time a top executive of collapsed TradeBank.

In the 1991 – 1993 rip-off, a company Goldenberg International, owned by Indian Businessman Kamlesh Pattni and spy chief James Kanyotu lied to the government that they were exporting gold and diamond jewellery so as to receive compensation from the government for earning foreign exchange.

The truth was no diamond or gold was being exported; the claims were fictitious and Kenyan taxpayers were robber a cool over Ksh100 billion.

Mr Mwangi and TradeBank

When TradeBank collapsed in 1993, Mr Mwangi walked away with Ksh200 million which, according to MP Arunga, was used to start Equity Bank as we know it.

The MP that time said that he was warry of the collapse of a bank which Kenyans had invested a lot in.

The legislator from Khwisero was only being truthful in his fears because, Mr Mwangi worked in TradeBank, a bank which started almost the same way as Equity Bank started; by attracting small depositors, lessening account opening procedures, but then was collapsed through insider trading.

Funding fight against Covid-19

The revelations that the Ministry of Health has used over Ksh1.3 billion, money donated by the World Bank in questionable ways should not come as a surprise to any Kenyan.

Over the last 7 years, the Jubilee regime has known one agenda, STEAL.

Kenyans were being pacified when the same amount was said to have been donated by Equity Bank.

It is curious how the information was shared both on the same day; How World Bank Money was used and that Equity Conglomerate donating the same amount.

It is clear that one was used to tone down the questions about the other.

Equity CEO Mwangi said that he had discussions with his family before making the personal donation of Ksh300 million.

“When I shared the need with my family, a robust discussion revealed the urgency to holistically address the issue, as it was not prudent to provide the PPE’s to students without also focusing on the plight of the doctors, nurses, clinical officers, and medical staff,” Mwangi said.

A day later, it emerged that the bank fired some 60 staff who were involved in its Financial Access to SMEs and Rural Population in Agriculture using Technology (FASRAT) project, citing economic challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In view of the above circumstances and also for your own safety, we regret to inform you that we are suspending your employment contract with effect from 01 May 2020. During this time you will be on unpaid leave until such a time when the prevailing conditions return to normal,” the letter signed by Group Chief Human Resource Officer Gloria Byamugisha and Executive director, Equity Group Foundation Reuben Mbindu reads in part.

It really gets hard to understand these mathematics. But let’s go back a bit to the Goldenberg scandal and TradeBank which Mr Mwangi was part of.

As Lawyer and professor, Luis Franceschi said, “There had been corruption in Kenya before Goldenberg. But Goldenberg weakened and subverted the rule of law in unseen ways. It transformed the nature of corruption politics in the country. It made legal institutions malleable. It subverted permeable institutions that allowed for institutional theft at a magnitude never seen before”.

People like James Mwangi of Equity Bank were weaned into corruption in the 1980s and got away with a lot of crimes. There’s nothing that shakes this man since he has grown a thick skin as evidenced by the callous way Equity bank handles cases of theft from customer accounts.

One of the lines in the report on the Goldenberg Affair by the Judicial Commission notes something dire about the TradeBank, some companies which were owned by proxies. The report states, the firms in the first two categories i.e. Empire Holdings Limited, Holding Resort Ltd, Hasanti Ltd, P. W. Hault, Diners World Travel, Insight Computers, A Kassam which owed a total of slightly over Ksh1 Billion, in the second category Blue Sea Products (K) Ltd and SVR Holdings Limited which owed TradeBank Ksh720 million, were certainly fraudulent because of the facts that the loans were not repaid and that no export of any nature was shown.

The report further says, “Blank letter heads of the supposed importers were found in the bank in respect of all companies of Kassam and Rousalis, and many of the other companies listed. There were no confirmed letters of credit or contracts and the bank took no security for the various facilities. Finally there was no evidence of receipt of proceeds of any export”.

In the Kroll Report, it is written that Alnoor Kassam, one of tghe founders of TradeBank (or one who it was later sold to) took out huge loans from TradeBank to build the TradeBank Centre (current Integrity Centre; headquarters of EACC) but ran into financial difficulties in 1990/91. It also says, it was Kassam’s massive borrowing and subsequent fraudulent transfer of money that caused the collapse of TradeBank.

How then did people like James Mwangi who reportedly walked away from TradeBank with Ksh200 million escape the mention of the Goldenberg Scandal report.

In 2007, when Khwisero MP Julius Arunga brought the issue up, then Finance assistant minister Peter Kenneth defended Mr Mwangi’s past record and told the House that Equity Bank was in good health.

It is open knowledge Kenneth had been involved in bringing down Kenya Reinsurance. A part and parcel of the cartel.

University Don Prof Migai Akech says in his paper titled “Abuse of Power and Corruption in Kenya: Will the New Constitution Enhance Government Accountability?”, that, “A weak and incorrigible rule of law system serves to perpetuate porous institutions that are critical to enabling the type of grand siphoning of national resources that have defined post-1992 Kenyan corruption scandals”. Luis Franceschi then observes that ‘ever since Goldenberg, mega theft has been facilitated by broad executive powers in the approval process mixed with no accountability and practical impunity”.

The President, Uhuru Kenyatta today sought to rein in on all the dissenting voices that have criticised his use of money that had been collected as tax and that that has been donated by calling them petty.

“Don’t play with people’s lives. Think before you start talking nonsense on social media. This is not the time for us to be petty. This is the time that we should come together and plan the future of our great land”, the president said.

He was responding to criticism over mismanagement of funds by the Ministry of Health.

Kenya had also sent flowers as a gift to encourage National Health Service (NHS)  workers of former (clearly still is) colonial masters, Britain.

The narrative in this article meanders through a lot of information just to prove that the Equity Bank’s James Mwangi’s friends are not that great people and as the country fights an invisible enemy, Kenyans, its true owners must open their eyes to the bigger picture of what the primitive elite, the Kenyan oligarchs are up to.

TradeBank criminals stole money Ksh3 billion (3,080,184,230) from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

CBK has been silent on the ills of Equity Bank and that inglorious Kenyan scarecrow known as tribe begins to rear its ugly head when you look at the heads of CBK, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and other regulatory authorities that are supposed to take it seriously when James Mwangi and his pet-bank Equity are reported.

They protect their sins, their interest. This is the Kenyan Cabal.

Did it even hit you why James Mwangi announced last year that he wants to lead the bank for life? Why?