Millions missing at Supkem – Weekly Citizen

Kenyan Muslims risk missing this year’s annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, following an alleged threat by Saudi Arabia, which has ordered the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims to clear an outstanding arrears of ShSh16 million before they are allowed to set foot in Mecca.
The directives issued through Saudi Hajj ministry has sparked off fierce outrage from the Muslim community in Kenya who are now heaping blame on the Supkem Hajj committee accusing it of corruption that has resulted into the unprecedented predicament.

Nzibo

Sources claimed corruption and misappropriation of funds is the order of the day at the top offices of Supkem under the chairmanship of Yusuf Nzibo.
“The implications are that if he fails to pay this sum, there is a likelihood Kenya might be barred from going to Hajj this year,’’ lamented a member who opted to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the matter.
Supkem leadership has been accused of corruption that now gives the organisation a bad image. They include Nzibo who has been reportedly working in cahoots with the group organising secretary Abdallahi Salat.
Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lifetime. Hajj is an Arabic word meaning ‘to intend a journey’.
It is mandatory for Muslims adults to go on Haji at least once in their lifetime and standard rule is that they must be of sound mind, physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey that takes place during the month of Dhu al Hijja, the last month of the Islamic calendar.
Islamic calendar is based on the lunar year and so the dates changes in the Gregorian calendar each year.
When Nzibo took charge as the new chairman, beating his long serving predecessor Abdulghafur El-Busaidy, he made raft of changes that have constantly raised eyebrows from Muslims who have treated his style of leadership with total suspicions.
According to sources well versed with Supkem activities, a total of Sh528 million was earmarked to take care of the over 4,000 Muslim faithful who had attended last year’s Hajj.
But suspiciously, only Sh500 million was wired from Kenya to Saudi Arabia through bank to bank transaction while the remaining millions were taken to an individual account in the host country in total contradiction to Supkem constitution.
According to documents in our possession, Sh28 million was secretly withdrawn from Supkem Hajj accounts in Kenya but instead of the cash being channeled to an account in Saudi Arabia, it landed in the pockets of one Abidalai Salat.
Salat is the organising secretary in Saudi Arabia and has been a beneficiary of such fraudulent transactions for the last one year Nzibo has been in the office.
In regard to Hajj debt, it has remained a puzzle how the cartels negotiated their way at Mecca to have the Sh16 million paid later on top of Sh500 million but reality on the ground is that the Saudi Arabia government has vowed not to allow Kenya to participate in the much important event failure to pay the money.
At one point, on August 11 2018, a suspicious transaction through Cheque No 000064 was performed at First Community Bank where money to the tune of USD 90,000 was withdrawn from Hajj account by one Yusuf Mwaraba and consequently wired to Salat’s personal account in Saudi Arabia.
The following day Mwaraba was at the bank again and this time round upgraded the transaction to the tune of USD100,000 which also landed into the same account in Saudi Arabia operated by Salat.
Concurrently, Mwaraba withdrew another USD 90,000 from Supkem Gulf Bank account to the notorious receiver through the same system.
Previously, the cartels looting Supkem accounts through their main man in Saudi Arabia had on August 7, 2018 through cheque No 000063 withdrew USD 9,700 purported to be for car hire.
The Muslim community members both at the national and county level irked by the massive corruption are now calling for an urgent Nec meeting to rescue the fast crumbling Supkem at the hands of the current chairman.
Part of the letter demanding for the meeting reads: “We the undersigned request for an urgent NEC meeting to deliberate among others, issue concerning the management, operation and running of the day to day issues of our umbrella body’’.
The letter states that there was a strong feeling among members that Supkem was being grossly mismanaged and there was need for drastic measures to address the crippling and run away anomalies at the umbrella body.
In response to pressure mounted through the letter dated /March 18, 2019, Supkem officials immediately commenced a meeting on March 24 2019 at Concord Hotel.
Top on the agenda during the tension packed meeting was to address run away impunity the current leadership showed in deliberating their duties at Supkem and clarifications on respective bank accounts signatories.
Another critical issue tabled at the meeting was the refusal to allocate office space to officials holding substantive national mandate and the allocation of office to non-resident director of religious affairs.
The long overdue Hajj committee reports was given keen attention as well as a proposal to disband the current Hajj committee and reconstitute a new one since the current office holders.
Talking of the Sh 16 million Hajji scandals, the embattled chairman Nzibo was virtually made to sign a commitment and undertaking to clear the cash through his own style.
This, he did so by being forced by the Saudi authorities to put his signature as well as his thumb print in the commitment letter.
Some Muslims have accused Nzibo over his style of leadership described as out of touch with reality.
The former IEBC commissioner is said to be a man who has routinely abhorred transparency and accountability apart from being extremely temperamental.
Insiders say that Nzibo has put in place a method of opening the gates of money by literally buying gullible members to come to his support whenever an issue is raised against him.
The man has been accused of operating in sharp contrast to the Supkem constitution highlighting on how cash of the council, withdrawals and signatories of the accounts are supposed to be handled.
For the last one year, Nzibo has been in the office, Supkem has been faced with back to back financial troubles and at the moment, pressure is also coming from Hajj agents in Kenya who are demanding Sh10 million from the umbrella organisation.
The cash is a refund of their unutilised Hajj money which they paid last year and several attempts to have the money refunded has proved futile.
What is amazing is the fact that Supkem general ambassador Mahat has adopted a policy of lying low as misdeeds are taking place.
It is reported that in most public meetings including meetings with Hajj agents, Mahat has only been lamenting of massive theft of cash by crooks at the Supkem committee with no actions against the identified cartels being taken.
Muslims who had high hopes following the retirement of the long serving Supkem chairman Al Busaidy are now a dejected lot braving counterproductive, divisive and disruptive leadership under Nzibo.
Weekly Citizen has established that numerous protest letters have been sent to the chairman following his style of leadership but that has not moved the man said to be of stubborn.
There is also outcry within the Muslim members that within one year, Nzibo has been in the office, allowances from unnecessary international trips perceived to be of no value to the Supkem and by extension, the Muslim community have been the order of the days.
One of the most vibrant and income generating projects of Supkem is the Hajj and Umra venture, a docket which is directly managed by the Supkem Hajj subcommittee.
The Supkem Hajj committee oversees all those going to Hajj annually to perform their religious obligation.
This explains why Nzibo bulldozed his way to become the chairman of the highly lucrative committee ignoring the fact that this is contrary to the ethical requirement of the Supkem constitution barring a chairman from assuming the position.
“He has forced himself to be the chairman of the Hajj committee due to the lucrative monetary gain from the position,” observed an irate Muslim member.
After allegedly swindling millions of shillings during last year’s Hajj event, Nzibo and his henchmen have been frustrating efforts to have the previous report reviewed ahead of this year’s pilgrimage.
The Hajj committee is supposed to give a comprehensive report immediately after the end of the Hajj period but the strange behaviour of Nzibo and his group where they have sat on the report nine months down the line has left members astonished.
The former IEBC commissioner was elected to lead the umbrella body last year in the first successful election in 16 years that came with the retirement of Busaidy.
His election was initially seen as a new broom that was to sweep a myriad of challenges at the umbrella body ranging from bad image to eroded relationship with numerous stakeholders.
During the elections, Nzibo beat longserving chair El-Busaidy garnering 95 votes against the old professor’s 74, in an election held at Huda mosque in South B, Nairobi.
Mahat, a former Kuwait ambassador and a diplomat at the Foreign Affairs ministry’s office of the Great Lakes Region, was elected secretary general. He got 89 votes against his rival Hassan ole Naado who got 80 votes.
The umbrella body for all Muslim organisations was formed in 1973. Previous attempts to hold elections were frustrated through court battles by some of the organisation’s top officials or through their proxies.
But even as some accuse Nzibo of corruption, others point to the fact that the Saudi government is charging visitors to go for Hajj and say that the Saudi government that is but a family affair of the house of Saud is corruptly capitalising on its geographical location as the home of the two holy cities of Islam to charge people going to fulfil a religious obligation.
Interestingly, the custodian of the holy sites is King Abdullah of Jordan who is said to be directly linked in lineage to Prophet Mohammed. Abdullah himself has Briton blood as his mother who is the second wife of late King Hussein is from the UK royal family.investigative